Scottie Scheffler is up 5 going into the final round of the Tour Championship

ATLANTA — Scottie Scheffler birdied four of the final five holes Saturday at East Lake for a 5-under 66 that held off Collin Morikawa and moved the No. 1 player in golf one round away from winning his FedEx Cup season. $25 million. the prize.

Scheffler extended his lead to five shots over Morikawa heading into the final round of the Tour Championship, and no one else was within nine shots.

Sahith Theegala might have been two shots off without calling a two-shot penalty on the third hole for lightly touching the sand with his club from the bunker. The video wasn’t entirely clear, but Theegala alerted the officials and his partner turned in a double bogey.

“I’m sure I broke the rules, so I’m paying for it, and I feel good about it,” Theegala said. “I’m not 100% sure. But I can say I’m 98, 99% sure that some sand was moved.”

He responded with seven birdies on the back nine and shot a 66, leaving him nine shots behind. The last player to win a PGA Tour event after trailing by nine shots or more entering the final round was Stewart Cink at the 2004 MCI Heritage (followed by Ted Purdy on 9 holes through 54).

Morikawa, who started the tournament six shots behind Scheffler at No. 7, took a two-shot lead when he holed a birdie putt from just under 10 feet on the par-5 sixth hole.

But that was as close as he got. On the next hole, Scheffler holed a 15-foot birdie putt while Morikawa got close to the green, putt from just 3 feet and missed, two swings that restored Scheffler’s lead to four.

Morikawa scored a three-under 60 on the par-5 15th, then birdied three of the last four holes for a 67. He ended up losing another spot to Scheffler.

“It’s not exactly the day I needed, but I knew that this whole week I would need something special to come out on top and I would need something special,” said Morikawa. “But I believe in myself, and hopefully that will come out tomorrow.”

Scheffler was 26-under par. The five-shot lead is not the largest since the format began in 2019. Scheffler had a six-over lead the past two years, closing with a 73 and finishing one shot behind a hard-charging Rory McIlroy. In the last 60 years, only one player has hit more five-over-par marks entering the final round — Gay Brewer in the 1966 Tournament of Champions (five shots) and the 1969 Danny Thomas-Diplomat Classic (6 shots), both . losing times to arnold palmer.

Last year, Scheffler started as the No. 1 seed and only had one round under the division.

“I feel like I did a lot of things well and played hard, so I’m looking forward to the challenge of trying to finish the tournament tomorrow,” he said.

British Open and PGA champion Xander Schauffele has never been on the road. Starting the day five shots behind, he had two bogeys in the opening four holes and failed to hit three birdies on the 5s in his round of 71. He was 10 shots behind.

He never hit more than seven rounds in three rounds, and it cost him when he needed to go down to stay in the game.

“I wasn’t playing well enough to shoot 7-under pars in a row,” Schauffele said. “You have to hit at least 12 fairways to look good and do a lot of good after that, but it starts with your ball on the short stuff.”

For everyone, it’s a race for money.

The winner of the FedEx Cup receives $25 million, second place is worth $12.5 million and third place pays $7.5 million.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.