Utah’s Tony Finau continues to hang around in his quest to win his first major golf championship, but he will have to overtake the best golfer in the sport and several others to claim the Wanamaker Trophy.
Finau fired another 2-under-par 69 on Saturday in the third round of the 107th PGA Championship to get to 5-under for the tournament and is six shots behind leader Scottie Scheffler at par-71 Quail Hollow Golf Club in North Carolina.
Scheffler broke from the pack with a 6-under 65 in the third round and is at 11-under and three shots clear of Sweden’s Alex Noren heading into Sunday’s final round.
Scheffler started his run with an eagle on the 304-yard par-4 14th hole and tamed the so-called “Green Mile” down the stretch to take control of the tournament.
Scheffler made a 9-footer for birdie on the difficult 18th hole, a 482-yard par-4, to give himself a three-shot lead.
J.T. Poston and Davis Riley are at -7 and tied for third. Also ahead of Finau on the leaderboard are Jon Rahm (-6), Si Woo Kim (-6) and Jhonattan Vegas (-6).
Finau is tied for eighth with U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley, Matthieu Pavon and former U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick.
Finau, 35, a six-time winner on the PGA Tour, placed 18th at last year’s PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, fading a bit in the final round.
He’s had three top-10 finishes in the PGA, placing T10 at Whistling Straits in 2015, T4 at TPC Harding Park in 2020 and T8 at Kiawah Island in 2021.
Saturday, the father of six who splits time between residences in Utah and Arizona, made four birdies and two bogeys.
The other Utahn in the field, former BYU golfer Patrick Fishburn, shot a two-day total of 146 (+4) and did not make the cut.