Matthias Schmid, Ben Griffin set pace at third round of Charles Schwab Challenge
After starting Saturday sharing the lead, Ben Griffin and Matthias Schmid continued their control of the leaderboard at the Charles Schwab Challenge with the pair nursing a 4-stroke lead headed into Sunday’s final round.
Schmid, a German native and PGA Tour rookie, started his day with three straight birdies, showcasing his putting prowess.
“Obviously I got off to a really good start, and after three holes I hung onto that pretty good, I would say,” Said Schmid, “I needed to scramble a little bit today. Didn’t hit too many fairways. I mean, it was tough. I feel like a lot of tee shots were with hard left-to-right wind. I hit in a fade, so it’s kind of tricky to hit these fairways then because they’re so firm, but hung on there pretty good.”
Griffin got off to a similarly hot start, also starting off with three consecutive birdies, but struggled on his next two holes with a double bogey and bogey. Griffin, though, use birdies on holes eight and 10 to draw even with Schmid.
The rest of the top ten is listed below:
1. Matti Schmid, Ben Griffin (-13)
3. Rickie Fowler (-9)
4. Nick Hardy, Robert MacIntyre, Akshay Bhatia, (-8)
7. Scottie Scheffler, Andrew Novak, Kurt Kitayama, (-7)
10. John Pak, Ryo Hisatsune, Tommy Fleetwood, Emiliano Grillo, J.J. Spaun, Lucas Glover, Karl Vilips, Bud Cauley (-6)
Scheffler’s charge
The Highland Park graduate shot up the leaderboard on Saturday, posting a 6-under par with seven birdies and an eagle, launching Scottie Schefler back into the top ten. His second shot on the seventh hole was one of the day’s best while stuck in the rough and surrounded by trees, allowing him to salvage a par.
“It was kind of an interesting one because the lie at first looked bad, and the more we got in there and looked at it, the kind of more options that came about,” said Scheffler,
“Originally when you get up to a lie like that, I think the first thought in your head is the safest place is to try to get it back out in the fairway, but the areas where I was going to chip it out seemed like a pretty hard shot. It looked like I had something through the trees. The penalty for not pulling it off wasn’t too bad. So just figured I would try something.”
This story was originally published May 24, 2025 at 5:19 PM.
