Players were met with windy conditions when they arrived at Colonial Country Club on Saturday for the third round of the 2025 Charles Schwab Challenge. As winds swirled, the field was faced with quite the challenge, and no one rose to the occasion better than world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
After narrowly making the cut at 1 under, Scheffler charged up the leaderboard with a red-hot start as he was 7 under thru 11 holes, combining his normal brilliance as a ball-striker with some incredible scrambling and escapism.
Scheffler couldn’t maintain that torrid pace and went on a bit of a rollercoaster ride to close out his round, making three bogeys and two birdies over his final six holes, but he got into the clubhouse with a 64 that moved him up 42 spots on the leaderboard into T7 going into Sunday. That’s six off the lead established and maitained by Ben Griffin and Matti Schmid.
After Griffin and Schmid both got off to fast starts with birdies on the first three holes it looked like Scheffler’s effort might be in vain. However, the two stalled out from there while battling blustery conditions, unable to put any further distance between themselves and the field. Both Griffin and Schmid shot Saturday 68s to remain the co-leaders at 13 under.
Lucky for them, their two closest competitors both went backwards on Moving Day as John Pak and Chris Gotterup each shot rounds in the 70s to move out of contention. That helped keep a healthy cushion between Griffin and Schmid and the rest of the field.
Their four-stroke lead is held over Rickie Fowler, who continued a strong week with a 67 that featured four birdies and one bogey.
Fowler hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic, but he has given himself a chance going into Sunday. After his round, he spoke about feeling close with his game but not seeing the results he’s wanted to until this week.
“It’s definitely been awhile. Everything’s been close for awhile, it’s nice to finally start to see some good stuff come up, cause like I said it hasn’t been very far off,” Fowler said. “Looking forward to [Sunday], always love playing Colonial and have enjoyed this week, so yeah, we’ll have some fun out there.”
That’ll be a good attitude to have for Fowler, who will get to be part of the final group with Griffin and Schmid as he tries to erase a four-shot deficit and capture his seventh career win on the PGA Tour.
The leaders
1. Ben Griffin, Matti Schmid (-13): While they were aiming to put real distance between themselves and on the field after opening birdie-birdie-birdie, both Griffin and Schmid did what was necessary: post rounds in the 60s and not fall back to the field. Both had some shaky stretches of play but were able to avoid true disaster overall. Griffin made a double bogey on No. 5 and followed it up with a bogey on No. 6, but he bounced back with birdies on Nos. 9 and 10 to steady the ship. Schmid had the lead alone until the 17th when he drove it left and had to punch out, but he was able to save bogey with a 13-foot putt to maintain a share of the lead.
Schmid continues to lead the field in strokes gained putting at an incredible 9 shots gained on the greens this week. Griffin, meanwhile, has been incredibly steady with top-15 rankings in every strokes gained category. We’ll have to see how they hold up on Sunday as they look to breakthrough for their first individual wins on the PGA Tour — Griffin’s lone win was in the team event at the Zurich Classic earlier this year alongside Andrew Novak.
Other contenders
3. Rickie Fowler (-9)
T4. Robert MacIntyre, Nick Hardy, Akshay Bhatia (-8)
T7. Scottie Scheffler, Andrew Novak, Kurt Kitayama (-7)
With the leaders at 13 under, anything beyond the top 10 right now feels like too far back to have much of a chance. Even for these players, they’ll need something special Sunday (and probably some help from the leaders), but each has proven to be capable of that this week. Fowler has gone 64-67 across the middle 36 holes to move into solo 3rd; he will be able to apply pressure from the final group alongside Schmid and Griffin.
MacIntyre matched Scheffler for the round of the day with a 64 to make the leap into contention; he will need another round like that to have a chance at his third career win. Hardy had it to 9 under before a late bogey dropped him back into the group at 8 under. He has been incredibly steady so far this week but will need to find another gear to get a win. Bhatia got to 10 under after a birdie at No. 11, but three bogeys and a birdie from No. 14 to No. 17 dropped him back to five off the pace of the leaders. Novak, likewise, got to 10 under when he left the par-5 11th, but he closed with three bogeys in his final six holes to fall back into T7.
And then there’s Scheffler, the boogeyman on this leaderboard. If he can get hot early Sunday and move within a couple shots of the leaders, that will suddenly put a lot more pressure on them to execute. He showed Saturday that he can go on a tear on the first 11 holes at Colonial, and anything close to a repeat performance of that in the final round will create some real drama if the leaders have to stare at his name climbing the board.
2025 Charles Schwab Challenge updated odds, picks
Odds via Caesars Sportsbook
- Ben Griffin (11/10)
- Matti Schmid (2-1)
- Scottie Scheffler (12-1)
- Rickie Fowler (16-1)
- Robert MacIntyre (22-1)
- Akshay Bhatia (25-1)
At this point, if you’re betting on anyone other than Griffin and Schmid, you’re banking on not just a great round of golf from whoever you pick but also both of the leaders backing up. That’s certainly in the cards if the wind and the nerves pick up. Qhile Scheffler is tempting, six shots feels like too many even for him. Fowler would be my pick of anyone chasing, but this likely ends up being Schmid’s week just because of how incredibly well he’s putting. To sustain this kind of heater on the greens for three days is pretty incredible, and his feel on these greens will end up being the difference.
