Signature Scroll: Scottie Scheffler vs. Viktor Hovland in Sunday showdown at Travelers Championship

Get the Signature Scroll – and the rest of PGA TOUR's newsletters, including The Connect, Wire to Wire and The Early Card – directly in your inbox. Subscribe today!

What a duel we have in store ...

Scheffler vs. Hovland

We’ve waited long enough for this rematch.

The 2023 BMW Championship feels like ages ago. That was the last time Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland dueled down the stretch of a golf tournament.

Hovland won that week, shooting an absurd 9 under in the final round to snatch victory from Scheffler, and would claim the FedExCup a few days later. It was a moment of a different era, back before Scheffler ascended into territory few men have trekked, and Hovland descended into a hole too many have failed to pull themselves out of.

Back then, we thought Hovland might be the best player in the world and could remain there in perpetuity. That did not materialize, obviously, though Sunday could be an emphatic way to resume the pursuit – beating the man who assumed that post at the top of the game.

Here’s a look at their divergent paths since that final day at Olympia Fields in 2023.

Scheffler

• Wins: 14
• Top 10s: 41
• Weeks inside OWGR top five: 148

Hovland

• Wins: two
• Top 10s: seven
• Weeks inside OWGR top five: 21

Hovland leads Scheffler by one stroke at this Travelers Championship and is five strokes clear of the next challenger. It will be as close to a mano-a-mano duel as we get in stroke-play golf – Scheffler’s metronomic relentlessness versus Hovland’s incalculable brilliance. Styles make fights, and their contrasting natures provide all the intrigue you could hope for.

I’m just hoping it will be as good as that final day at Olympia Fields.

Playing through

• 📺 Check out Round 3 highlights.
• ⛳ How to watch final-round action at TPC River Highlands.
• 🇳🇴 Just one man stands between Viktor Hovland and a return to the winner's circle. Can the Norwegian row across the finish line at TPC River Highlands?

Lowry finds old caddie, form

Shane Lowry has been a shell of himself. The Irishman coughed up a three-stroke lead with three holes to play at The Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches in February and is without a top-20 finish since. He missed the cut at THE PLAYERS Championship and the U.S. Open and shot 80 in the final round of the Masters.

The consistent, steady force was anything but. That could be changing. Lowry shot 6-under 64 on Saturday at Travelers, his lowest since the third round at PGA National four months ago. It also coincides with a new (old) caddie.

Lowry split with Darren Reynolds, his caddie of three years, after missing the weekend at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, and he returned to a familiar face. Dermot Byrne is on the bag at TPC River Highlands. Byrne caddied for Lowry for the first decade of Lowry’s career before the duo split in 2018. Byrne caddied for Korn Ferry Tour professional James Nicholas at the U.S. Open last week.

“I felt like I needed a bit of a change-up,” Lowry told Sky Sports. "(Reynolds) was very good to me and we experienced some great things … I just felt like I needed a bit of a change on the course and I felt like the five-hour rounds were quite unenjoyable at times.”

As of earlier this week, Lowry had not decided whether Byrne would continue long-term.

Another good round on Sunday could make it an easy decision.

Parting shots

• 🌬️ Wyndham Clark can’t keep getting away with this?! Well, he’s doing it again. Clark survived some shaky ball-striking down the stretch at Shinnecock, winning the U.S. Open with an exemplary short game. He’s doing the same this week. Clark is well below average off the tee and on approach, but ranks second in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and sixth in putting. He probably won’t win, seven back of Hovland, but it’s an admirable performance after a whirlwind week.
• 📉 If you were bearish on Scheffler’s chances to win entering the weekend, it was likely because you thought he wouldn’t sustain his putting performance. That regression hit Saturday. After the best statistical putting round of his career on Friday, Scheffler lost more than a stroke on the greens, which aided Hovland’s pursuit.
• 🥵 Alex Fitzpatrick is the poster child for the Signature Event model. He played his way onto the PGA TOUR by winning at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. That got him into the next set of Signature Events, and he’s played too well to leave them. He’s finished T9, fourth and T6 in three Signature Event starts and is tied for 14th entering Sunday.
• 🚨 Si Woo Kim is back in the mix this week, tied for 10th. It also illuminates the issue that continues to plague him: his inability to keep that form at the majors. Kim has one top 10 in 35 major starts. He missed the cut at Shinnecock Hills. Amid one of the best years of his career, he has only one more chance to rectify it in the majors. He’s missed the cut in four of seven starts at the Open.
• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Only one bogey-free golfer left through 54 holes: Aaron Rai. The only issue: He’s made just 10 birdies, ninth-fewest in the field.