Scottie Scheffler powered into the third-round lead on the Players Championship on Saturday, benefiting from preferrred scoring situations because the golfers produced a spectacular show of birdies, eagles, a uncommon ace and a document low spherical from Tom Hoge.

Masters champion Scheffler, who can reclaim the primary world rating with a win on Sunday, acquired his spherical off to a scorching birdie-eagle begin to lay the inspiration for a seven-under 65 and two-shot lead over Australia’s Min Woo Lee going into Sunday’s closing spherical on the TPC Sawgrass.

“I played really good today,” mentioned Scheffler, summing up his efficiency. “I got off to a nice start, which is always good.

“Kept it rolling from there, gave myself a lot of looks.

“Good finish as well.

“So overall very solid day, only one bogey, which is really good around this golf course.”

Lee, whose sister Minjee Lee is a twice main winner on the ladies’s Tour, additionally acquired his spherical off to the very best begin with an eagle on the first and had appeared poised to share prime spot on the leaderboard with Scheffler till choosing up his solely bogey of the day on the 18th for a six-under 66 whole.

“Tomorrow could be the biggest day of my life, but I’m going to go out there and have fun again,” mentioned Lee, who cracked the highest 50 of the world rankings final week to earn his Players spot. “I just crept into this tournament and making the most of it and soaking it all in.

“It’s one of the biggest regular season events, and it’s obviously considered the fifth major, and it would have been guttering to come 51st in the ranking and not get in.”

Lurking two photographs again and 4 off the tempo is Australian Cam Davis (67) with a pair of Englishmen Tommy Fleetwood (65) and Aaron Rai (65), South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout (69) and first-round chief Chad Ramey (68), all one shot additional adrift at nine-under.

Rai moved into competition with the assistance of a hole-in-one on the notorious par-three seventeenth, touchdown his tee shot completely on the island inexperienced and watching it spin again into the cup.

The ace was the spotlight of an excellent end for the 28-year-old who grew to become the primary participant to shut out a spherical on the Players with birdie-ace-birdie.

“That was an incredible moment,” mentioned Rai. “It was a little bit of a blur.

“I saw it go in and then I looked to the left to almost see, is it real and I saw almost all the crowd’s hands in the air.”

For all Rai’s fireworks it was journeyman Hoge who produced the spherical of the day, returning an error-free 10-under 62, the bottom rating ever at a Players Championship.

Hoge, who simply made the minimize proper on the quantity after a 78 within the opening spherical, was 16 photographs higher on Saturday to hitch Sweden’s David Lingmerth (68) and South Korea’s Im Sung-jae (64)on eight-under and 6 again of the chief.

The day started with half the sector finishing their second rounds after storms swept throughout Ponte Vedra Beach on Friday suspending play.

Adam Svensson, who was among the many group out early, birdied his closing gap to ship him into the third spherical alone on the prime of the leaderboard, a 67 adequate to go away him two away from Scheffler.

The Canadian’s time on the prime was short-lived as Scheffler mounted an early cost with a birdie on the first after which chipping in for eagle on the second.

He would add one other birdie on the fifth earlier than amassing his solely bogey of the spherical on the seventh.

But there can be no extra miscues as Scheffler raced into the flip with birdies at eight and 9 earlier than wrapping up his spherical with a faucet in birdie at 16 and rolling in a 10-footer for one more at 18.