SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda – Adam Schenk played bogey-free in strong winds Saturday, shooting a 4-under 67 and sharing the lead with Braden Thornberry in a tense battle for a PGA Tour card at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
Thornberry, a PGA Tour rookie who won the NCAA title eight years ago at Mississippi State, shot a 69 to tie Schenk at 12-under 201 and entered the final round with little margin for error.
Schenk and Thornberry are among 10 of the top 11 players on the leaderboard who arrived in Bermuda from outside the FedEx Cup top 100 as time expired. The season concludes next week at the RSM Classic at Sea Island, which will be the first tournament to award cards to the top 100 rather than the top 125.
Schenck is ranked 134th and is running out of options. But he started making tweaks to his game in recent months and saw it pay off in time at Port Royal.
After playing in 242 games on the PGA Tour without a win, he suddenly had an opportunity he never expected.
“It’s a great opportunity for tomorrow,” said Schenk, who is splitting the 54-hole lead for the first time since Colonial two years ago. “I know if I don’t make the top 100, I have to go to Q-school, so that’s a pretty big motivator.”
Thornberry is ranked No. 178 and could earn a card with a two-year exemption if he wins.
But they have a lot of friends.
One group behind was Canada’s Adam Hadwin, who led after 36 holes, but settled for a 71 and tied for third. Max McGreevey (69), Chandler Phillips (70) and Japan’s Takumi Kanaya (66).
Rikuya Hoshino was 2 behind with 67.
The only player within three strokes of the lead who wasn’t under much stress was Vince Whaley, who shot a 68. He is 86th in the FedEx Cup, virtually guaranteed to remain in the top 100.
On top of the pressure of keeping your PGA Tour card, there’s a wind that won’t stop blowing. Thornberry found the trick was to take advantage of the wind when it was helping, and hang on when it wasn’t. An example of this is the par-3 16th, which played 124 yards.
“I was about to chip my 6-iron and the wind changed,” Thornberry said. “There are some shots where you have to accept that even if you have a decent swing, you won’t get anywhere near the hole. Just try to fight through it. That’s really the key to everything.”
Schenck was an example in 2023 of a player who can advance to the big event even if he doesn’t make it to the $20 million signature tournament the first time around. He advanced to the Tour Championship without a win and played in every major tournament in 2024.
Although he feels like he’s starting over again now, the 33-year-old Indiana native is happy with some of the changes he made in September.
“I really wish I could have done this earlier in the season. I wouldn’t have been in this position, but here I am,” Schenk said. “And if I can make some putts tomorrow – which is hard to do in the wind – maybe I can get another bogey-free round, that would be great.”
