McKinney, Texas — Scotty Scheffler is looking for AT&T leader Byron Nelson at two contemporaries with almost no resume that the Dallas resident has built up over the past 15 months.
In fact, Austin Ecroat and China’s Marty Du are aiming for their first PGA Tour win.
Oklahoma’s raised 8-under 63, Eckrott hit one shot better than Doe, and the pair shared a two-shot lead with Texan Ryan Palmer at 16-under in the third round off Nelson on Saturday.
Scheffler was in the group at the age of 14 after the hometown favorite was tripped by a bogey at the par 5 18 when his second shot hit the lip of a Fairway bunker and stayed in it.
Palmer took an eagle shot to the lead on 18, but his 35-foot putt stopped short, leaving him on 68. Scheffler shot a par 71 after the best two-round start of his career by a pair of 64s.
Du, who lives in the Dallas area and homeschools at TPC Craig Ranch, is the same age as Scheffler, 26. Eckrot is only two years old and says he’s played a lot of “all-ages” golf with the former Texas Longhorns.
You may also be years apart from the ratios.
Scheffler has the 2022 Masters title among six career victories — all since February of last year — and knows he’ll be in the field for next week’s PGA Championship in Oak Hill.
Eckrot will appreciate the position on the field at Oak Hill that a win in Nelson will give him. The former Oklahoma State player has a lot at stake regardless.
“There’s a lot of job security,” Ekroat said. “A lot of things come with winning a PGA Tour event, and I just hope to get that done.”
Du, who settled in the Dallas area about five years ago so he could pursue a career in golf, doesn’t even want to think about what it’s like to win in his home country.
“It’s definitely going to be big,” said Du, a three-time winner of the Corn Ferry Tour. “There’s a lot of golf for me to play, so I’m in a good position like that, creating more chances, and that’s all I think about.”
Swede Vincent Norman shot 65 and was 14 with Scheffler, Jason Day (66) and Se Woo Kim (68). There were 25 players within 5 shots of the lead.
17’s Terrell Hutton shot the second-best in the field behind No. 2 Scheffler, 65 and was a 13-year-old alongside Button Kezier (64), Song Kang (66) and Richie Werensky (68).
Eckrot had only one peer on the front nine, answering a double bogey on the third par-seventh with his birdies sixth and seventh before the turn. The back nine was more routine – six pars and three birdies.
“It didn’t really bother me like it usually does,” Ekroat said. “Really happy with the way you handled that.”
Dou opened with a score of 63 which was overshadowed by a course record 60 by South Korea’s SY Noh, who had a consecutive second-round over-par of 73 to drop out of contention.
After his 1-under 70 left him 5 shots behind Scheffler by two rounds, Doe quietly crept up the leaderboard before a 28-foot birdie put him on No. 16 to tie for the lead.
Dou wouldn’t have to worry about the large crowds following Scheffler, whose late flips kept him out of the final set. But he is the 54-hole leader for the first time.
“I think nerves are the same thing I play Korn Ferry with,” Doe said. “You get into it and you’re going to be nervous no matter what.”
Scheffler would have led by two on the fourth par 12 but missed a short birdie putt on the second hardest hole, which was converted after playing in Nelson’s first two years at TPC Craig Ranch.
He missed two more chances on Birdie on the back nine before running into trouble on the 18th, when he also missed an easy putt after finally getting out of the bunker.
“I just softened it up,” Scheffler said of the first shot in the bunker. “I wasn’t even thinking about the lip. I got a horrible shot.”
Palmer, a four-time Tour winner without a single win in 13, had a shaky start on the back nine before finishing with three birdies in five holes, capped by the tap on the 18th.
“It’s been a patient day,” said Palmer, 46, who grew up in West Texas but lives in the Dallas area. “I knew I would be back 1 or 2, worst case. It would be nice to be in the final group again, and we’ll give our all.”
Two-time defending champion KH Lee shot 68 seconds and was 7 under. The last player to win a PGA Tour event three times in a row was Steve Stricker at the John Deere Classic from 2009 to 2011.