PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Did Scottie Scheffler find anything that helped him shoot a third-round 67 at THE PLAYERS Championship on Saturday?

In Scheffler’s view, that would imply he lost something – an assertion he was not ready to make just moments after his lowest round since the final day of The Genesis Invitational last month.

“It was a little sharper today than I was the first two days,” Scheffler said from TPC Sawgrass, “I felt like I was swinging it better each day of the tournament.”

Scheffler’s struggles in the first two rounds, if you’re willing to call them that, have kept him from true contention. Scheffler estimated the only way he’s in it on Sunday is if the winds kick up to a gnarly degree. But the weekend here carried significance for Scheffler’s near-term and long-term future.

That began with no mistakes. Starting the day at 1-over, Scheffler worked his way to 4-under overall, making five birdies and no bogeys, his first bogey-free round since the third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

A vastly improved driver helped elicit those results. Scheffler hit 11 of 14 fairways, playing from the short grass far more often than in his opening 36 holes. Scheffler birdied the friendly par-5 second hole to get his day started, before rattling off much tougher birdies at the fifth and sixth holes, holing birdie putts of 9 and 19 feet, respectively.

His next birdie came on the driveable par-4 12th. Scheffler laid up, but hit his approach to 4 feet and sunk the putt. Scheffler’s final birdie came on what he called his best shot of the day, a knockdown iron to the island green par-3 17th that came off exactly how he planned, landing past the pin and using the familiar front left slope to bring it closer to the hole.

“I think with the way I hit it the first couple days, to kind of have the attitude that I did and the fight that I did, I think that -- when I look at tournaments, I'm not thinking about winning, I'm thinking about approaching things the right way,” Scheffler said. “I did my best to stay committed and I did a good job I think of keeping the right attitude and keeping my head on straight in order to grind out a couple rounds that were difficult. And then I shot a nice round today as well.”

Scheffler will hope for more of the same on Sunday as he looks to gather further momentum in the build-up to the year’s first major next month at Augusta National.

Scheffler is undecided whether he will play before then, so his final round at TPC Sawgrass could be the last time he has a chance to test his game under top competition.