Sepp Straka heads into the final round of the 2025 Hero World Challenge as the sole leader, shooting a 64 in the third round to go shot-for-shot with two-time defending champion Scotty Scheffler, taking the sole lead at 17 under with 18 holes remaining.
On Saturday, Straka maintained a bogey-free card and played solid golf all day, capitalizing on opportunities with four birdies and two eagles to chip in on the par-5 sixth and roll in on the par-5 15th to climb to the top of Albany Golf Club’s leaderboard.
It was performances like this that made Straka one of the most consistent players on the PGA Tour last season. He plans to continue that into Sunday.
“Yeah, I played really well. The front nine, early on I felt like I wasn’t making any putts, but around the turn my putter started to feel a lot better,” Straka said. “Well, to be honest, I felt the same as yesterday. I played really well with the irons. I just struggled a little bit with the driver. Hopefully I can improve on that for tomorrow.”
His driver hit all the fairways, so he wasn’t too loose, but in the third round he hit 16 of the legal 18 greens to take the lead, so the evaluation of his iron play was spot on. This combination allowed him to handle little stress as he lapped Albany GC. Although he didn’t produce as many dramatic shots as his playing partner, this was a rare round in which Scheffler wasn’t the player with the fewest mistakes of the pair.
Straka, who has already won titles at American Express and Twist, is looking to cap off his tour career with a third win and will enter Sunday with a one-stroke lead. To do that, he needs to win consecutive head-to-head battles with Scheffler.
Schaeffler aims for 3-peat
The world No. 1 had another great round on Saturday, getting off to what he called a “dream start” with four birdies and one eagle in the first seven holes. He finished the day with eight birdies and one eagle, but stumbled with two bogeys on his final three holes and shot a 65 to finish at 16 under, one stroke behind Straka.
The first 15 holes were an exhibition of Scheffler’s ball-striking, and he held a two-shot lead on the 15th tee and for a moment it looked like he was going to run away and hide. But Scheffler left the 18th green extremely frustrated after suffering two bogeys, including a rare miss to the short side when he failed to get up from the fairway at the end. Scheffler dropped the ball in the water after cleaning up the bogey and had some things to say to himself, but he’s still in prime position to win the Tiger Woods event for the third straight year.
Scheffler has been practicing tee-to-green as usual, but this week he’s using a new driver and his performance on a course that can be stressful off the tee was impressive. He seemed to quickly develop a rapport with the club and hit the fairway on every hole. With his iron play and solid putting performance, he knows what he has to do Sunday to get another trophy from Tiger.
“We just have to keep executing,” Scheffler said. “Like I said, we did a lot of good things today and I think we can do even better tomorrow. I think we’re in a good position.”
Who else will be joining in the hunt?
- Alex Nolen (-14)
- Hideki Matsuyama (-14)
- Windham Clark (-13)
- JJ Spahn (-13)
Straka and Scheffler will have a bit of a cushion heading into Sunday. The group trailing behind them will start at 14 under. They defeated Albany GC on Saturday in the bottom two rounds of the week, but the rest of the top teams have been unable to match their pace and as a result will need Sunday’s special round to threaten the final bracket.
Noren and Matsuyama will be in the penultimate group together at 14 under, three spots behind Straka. Considering Straka and Scheffler’s worst round this week was a 69, they’ll have to shoot around a 66 to catch up. The two U.S. Open champions will lead the Spun-Clark pairing at 13 under par, but one of the two will need to post their worst round of the week to threaten the top spot.
