Scheffler closes in on $37 million FedEx Cup prize

World No.1 Scottie Scheffler has birdied four of his last five holes for a five-under 66 to keep Collin Morikawa at bay and move one round away from capping his season with a $A37 million FedEx Cup prize. Scheffler extended his lead to five shots over Morikawa (67) going into the final round of the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta, and no one else was closer than nine shots. Australia's former world No.1 Adam Scott carded a 68 to be tied fifth, 11 shots adrift of Scheffler as he battles for a big chunk of the huge prizemoney on offer. Top seed Scheffler led at 26-under 197. His five-shot lead was not the largest since this format began in 2019. He had a six-shot lead two years ago, closed with a 73 and finished one shot behind a hard-charging Rory McIlroy. A year ago, he started as the No.1 seed and had only one round under par. "I feel like I've done a lot of stuff well and played solid, so I'm looking forward to the challenge of trying to finish off the tournament tomorrow," Scheffler said. Sahith Theegala might have been two shots closer except for calling a two-shot penalty on himself on the third hole for lightly touching the sand with his club out of a bunker. Theegala informed officials and his par turned into a double bogey. "Pretty sure I breached the rules, so I'm paying the price for it, and I feel good about it," Theegala said. "I'm not 100 per cent sure. But I'd say I'm 98, 99 per cent sure that some sand was moved." He responded with seven birdies on the back nine and shot 66, leaving him nine shots behind in outright third. Morikawa, who started the tournament six shots behind Scheffler as the No.7 seed, got within two shots of the lead when he holed a birdie putt from just inside 10 feet on the par-5 sixth hole. But that was as close as he got. On the next hole, Scheffler holed a 15-foot birdie putt while Morikawa came up short of the green, lagged a putt to just outside 3 feet and missed it, a two-shot swing that restored Scheffler's lead to four. Morikawa three-putted for par from 60 feet on the par-5 15th, and then birdied three of his last four holes but still wound up losing a little more ground to Scheffler. "Not exactly the moving day that I needed, but I knew this entire week I was going to need something special to come out on top and I'm going to need something very special," Morikawa said. "But I believe in myself, and hopefully that comes out tomorrow." British Open and PGA champion Xander Schauffele never got on track. Starting the day five shots behind, he had two bogeys in the opening four holes and failed to birdie the three par 5s in his round of 71. He was 10 shots behind. For everyone else, it's a race for cash. The FedEx Cup winner gets $US25 million ($A37 million), with second place worth $US12.5 million ($A18.5 million) and third place paying $US7.5 million ($A11 million).