Who leads the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial headed into the final round?
Eric Cole, who has had two top-ten finishes in his last three tournaments, is in pole position headed into the final round at the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial.
Cole shot a 7-under 63, the best performance in the third round, on Saturday. He sits atop the leaderboard at 12-under-par 198.
“It was a great day,” Cole said. “Everything was kind of working well. I got off to a really good start. I saw, I kind of knew going into it that it was going to be a harder course, firmer conditions. Getting off to that start and realizing how much harder the course was today was great.
“Then, yeah, just kept trying to hit good shots one after the next and make birdies when you can.”
Cole rose 24 spots on Saturday and is looking for his first career PGA Tour win.
Cole’s current best finishes are two second-place finishes, in the Honda Classic and the Zozo Championship, during the 2023 season — the year he won PGA Tour Rookie of the Year.
Cole talked about his mentality headed into Sunday’s final round at Colonial.
“It’s not going to be an easy day tomorrow, I know that from my experience. I know that it’s going to be difficult, but that’s why I practice really hard and that’s why I try and do everything the way I do so that I could be as prepared for whatever tomorrow brings,” said Cole.
Ryan Gerard took sole position of second place on his last hole of Saturday’s round with a birdie. Gerard shot 2-under 68 for the round while looking for his second career win. Gerard is at 11-under for the tournament, 1 stroke back of Cole.
SMU product Mac Meissner rose eight spots to the No. 3 position and like Cole is striving for his first win on the tour. Meissner shot 3-under 67 in the third round. He is tied for third with J.J. Spaun at 10-under par.
Meissner, whose wife Kennedy was born in Fort Worth, and who is from San Antonio, talked about playing a course close to home and getting ready to watch the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder clash in game 7 of the NBA’s Western Conference Finals.
“It’s been so much fun staying with my wife’s parents, and Matt McCarty and his caddie have been staying with us too,” said Meissner.
“So we’ve had a fun week. Off the course I’ve been focused on my Spurs. It’s been a lot of fun. It’s been great to take my mind off of golf and yell at the TV a little bit. So, big game tonight, so I think that will be helpful to get my mind off of golf a little bit tonight.”
Meissner talked about what he has to do to get his first career win on Sunday.
“Focusing less on the result and the score I think is something I’ve struggled with in the past on Sundays, being so worried about where I am on the leaderboard,” he said. “I think tomorrow I’ll be trying to be a lot more focused on just controlling what I can control, which is my commitment, my process, and after all that it’s kind of out of my control. So being okay with losing a little bit of control and working on controlling what I can control.”
It should be a close finish as six players are within 3 strokes of the leader heading into Sunday.
