FORT WORTH, Texas – Ben Griffin and Matty Schmidt match each other again on Saturday, entering the final round with a colonial teed 4 stroke ahead of the field, with world number one Scotty Schaeffler hiding so far behind.
Griffin and Schmidt each shot a 2-under 68 after maintaining a fast start. They were at 197 under 197 after posting the same score for the Charles Schwab Challenge for three days in a row. They opened the 66, followed the 63, putting them together as a lead.
Ricky Fowler shot a 67 and paired with co-leaders at 201 when Schmidt sought his first PGA Tour victory, paired with Andrew Novak to win the Zurich Classic in New Orleans last month, before sought Griffin’s first individual title. Fowler, 36, who fell to 127th in the world after entering the top 25 in the first half of 2024, hasn’t won since his sixth victory in the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit, and hasn’t won since his four-year unwinning streak.
Schaeffler, who won his third major victory at the PGA Championship a week ago, began his 10th day stroke before a 6-under 64, reaching within 6-under and six-strokes. He would have been closer without the three bogeys of the last seven holes. But on Sunday in another big round, he still has a chance to become the first player to win three times in a row since Dustin Johnson in 2017.
Robert McInteal and Lucas Glover also shot 64s. McInteal came in fourth with Nick Hardy and Akshay Battia at 8 under.
Schaeffler was at the wrong end of one of the biggest comebacks at the Colonial three years ago when Sam Burns overcome a seven-shot deficit in the final round and beat his best friend in the playoff hole. In 1994, it coincided with Nick Price’s record Seven Shot Comeback, catching Scott Simpson and won with the first extra hole.
Griffin and Schmidt had birdies on the first three holes on Saturday, reaching 14 under and quickly created some separation from the rest of the field. All three birdie putts from Griffin were under 7 feet, but Schmidt had 40 footers on the third hole for 461 yards.
They remained tied up until Griffin’s approach, fifth in the adjacent Trinity River, yielding a double bogey six. He then missed the green on his approach on the sixth hole before putting out two putts from 14 feet for a bogey.
Griffin returned twice on the birdie on the 8th and twice on the 10th on the 35 footer. It put him at 13 under and Schmidt went back to it when he ran into a right roughness and hit a bunker on his way to a bogey with a par 5 11th place for 637 yards.
Tee off more than two hours before co-leader, Schaeffler was under eight years old after Eagle at No. 11, where he rode the green in two shots and made a 15-foot putt. It followed consecutive birdies as No. 9 and No. 10, then started the back nine with an approach to 2½ feet.
However, a back-to-back bogeys followed after Schaeffler hit the tee shots into the bunker at No. 12 and 13.
The only player to win Byron Nelson and Colonial in the same season was Ben Hogan in 1946.