Friendship, final-round pressure collide as Scottie Scheffler, Si Woo Kim battle at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson

MCKINNEY, Texas — Regardless of what happens Sunday afternoon, Scottie Scheffler and Si Woo Kim will always have the story.

The two friends from nearby Royal Oaks Country Club can forever reminisce about the day they played in the final pairing of THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson. They can always remember what it was like to compete in front of all the people from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex who came to TPC Craig Ranch to watch and root.

One of them even might win — maybe in an unforgettable way.

Kim finished the third round Saturday at 21-under par, with a two-shot lead over Scheffler and Wyndham Clark. All three of those players know exactly what it takes at TPC Craig Ranch, because they’ve been doing it for 54 holes. Whoever wins Sunday will make a lot of birdies and very few mistakes.

Kim experienced that firsthand in the middle of the third round on a nearly windless day. He had a five-stroke lead to start. It vanished after bogeys on the 10th and 11th holes.

“After that, my caddie told me, ‘You’re in a rush, so you’ve got to calm down,’” Kim said.

He took a breath and did just that. Kim shot a 3-under 68 — with birdies at the 12th, 14th and 15th holes. He was playing his signature game at that point: No one on the PGA TOUR has made more birdies this season than Kim, who completed play Saturday with 26 for the tournament — one short of the TOUR 54-hole record — and 270 for the year. More will be necessary for his story to end well.

“This course is definitely not a 'protecting' course,” Kim said.

Scheffler played in the group ahead, with a surging Clark. He made seven birdies and a bogey for a 6-under 65 to finish at minus-19, which was good but not good enough.

“I’m looking forward to the challenge,” said Scheffler, the defending champion. “It’s always fun when I get to play with Si Woo. I think it's good for the community to have two guys that are local up there on the leaderboard. Should be a fun day tomorrow.”

The days have been fun so far. Playing a rain-softened golf course in little wind, the field has averaged 68.6 strokes a round on the par-71 TPC Craig Ranch, where Scheffler shot a record 31-under-par 253 last year to win by eight. That was before a design team led by retired player Lanny Wadkins repositioned 74 bunkers, recreated three waste areas and reshaped all 18 greens with dramatic slopes that remind some of Augusta National.

The $25 million project, finished in less than a year, was supposed to make the course more resistant to scoring. It might have, but an unusually wet spring, along with nearly nonexistent winds, resulted in a course that players have attacked since Taylor Moore shot an easy-as-you-please 62 in the first round.

Three lovely spring days later, Stephan Jaeger (64-68-64), Tom Hoge (68-62-66) and Sungjae Im (68-61-67) trail Kim (64-60-68) by five and Scheffler (66-63-65) and Clark (66-63-65) by two. The forecast for Sunday looks warm — a high of 87 — and calm, with winds of 7 miles an hour expected.

“I like when par means a lot, typically on the tougher golf courses,” Clark said. “It's also fun to be going out there and who's going to make the most birdies, who's going to hit the best shots and make the most putts. That is also fun. It's fun being in contention. Whether you have to shoot 8-under to win or 1-under to win, it's fun because you still feel the same heat. Tomorrow it's probably going to be exactly that way where you have to make a ton of birdies.”

So that’s the story. Time to see how it ends.