PONTE VEDRA, Fla. — You didn’t need to look at the scoreboard to know what kind of day it was at the Players Championship.
You needed only to look at the exasperated expressions on the players’ faces.
Really, all you needed to do was watch Scottie Scheffler.
The No. 1 ranked player in the world, whose ability to remain utterly unflappable in the face of adversity is one of his superpowers, whipped his golf ball into the lake at 16 after missing a short putt and club-slammed a wedge into his bag after hitting an errant approach shot over the 18th green.
Scheffler looked more rattled by the unpredictability of the gusting and swirling wind conditions that wreaked havoc on the third round on Saturday than he did when he was arrested on his way to the second round of the PGA Championship last year in Louisville.
The day was diabolical. The conditions were treacherous. The best players in the world often looked confused.
Everyone appeared frustrated.
Everyone except J.J. Spaun, a 34-year-old journeyman from California, who after his round on Friday opened a vein while speaking to reporters articulating about the difficulty of traveling on the PGA Tour and being away from his family.
Spaun, who shot a 2-under-par 70 on Saturday, secured the 54-hole lead in style when he buried a 25-foot par-save putt that spun around the hole and disappeared into the cup.
He’s one more great round away from changing his life forever, standing at 12-under par with a one-shot lead entering the final round.
“I’m sure people have their opinions or doubts,’’ Spaun said, referring to the fact that he’s hardly one of the big guns many predicted to win this tournament. “But I’m playing good, and as long as I believe that I can win this thing that’s all I really care about.’’
Bud Cauley, who grew up in the shadow of TPC Sawgrass and used to attend the tournament when he was a child, is 11-under par, one shot back. Alex Smalley is 10-under.
Lucas Glover and Akshay Bhatia are both 9-under.
Rory McIlroy and Corey Conners are 8-under, followed by a long list of players at 7-under par and not out of it, including Patrick Cantlay, Sepp Straka, Jake Knapp and Danny Walker, who got into the field as an alternate when Jason Day fell ill.
“[I’m] not out of it by any means,’’ McIlroy said. “The wind is supposed to still be blowing tomorrow. I saw there that a few guys struggled on the way in. This golf course on the best of days can do that, but whenever the conditions are like this, there’s some big numbers lurking out there.’’
There was no shortage of stress on this day, with wind gusts of more than 30 miles per hour.
Will Zalatoris was tied for the lead at 11-under par, quadrupled the 14th hole and proceeded to play the final five holes in 9-over par.
Min Woo Lee, who had a share of the lead entering the weekend at 11-under par, shot 78 and fell to 5-under.
Rickie Fowler, who began the day at 5-under par and saying he was looking forward to the challenge of playing in the wind, shot 82.
Fowler was 8-over par on his first eight holes.
Emiliano Grillo shot 85 after entering the day at 6-under par and in contention.
Only three players from the final 10 pairings shot rounds under par — Spaun (70), Glover (71) and Straka (71).
Scheffler, the two-time defending champion, looking as unsettled as he did, felt like the symbol of the trying day.
The largest deficit overcome by a Players champion is five shots, which has been done three times.
Scheffler, who’s seven shots back at 5-under, was asked if he thinks he can win a third consecutive Players.
“You never know,’’ he said. “Maybe do something crazy tomorrow.
Spaun will hardly rest comfortably entering the cauldron on Sunday.
He’s held a 54-hole led four times in his career and won once — in the 2022 Texas Open, his only career win.
Only five of the past 17 Players Championship 54-hole leaders went on to win.
An interesting side note regarding Spaun is that his caddie, Mark Carens, was Si Woo Kim’s caddie when Kim won the Players in 2017.
Spaun called the par putt on 18 “huge,’’ adding, “It hooped in there, which was kind of the way the day was going for me. Everything was going really well for me.
“It was definitely a grind today with those conditions on already a difficult course. I knew I had to stay patient and it paid off today.’’
With potential thunderstorms in the forecast for Sunday, the tee times for the final round have been moved up and the players will go off in threesomes with the leaders going off at 10 a.m
