Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler both struggle on Saturday, fall off the pace at Genesis Invitational

SAN DIEGO – Torrey Pines’ South Course has a history of making some of the game’s best players look average and Saturday was a perfect example of that superpower.

Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy – the top two ranked players in the Genesis Invitational – began the day in second and fourth place, respectively, only to struggle mightily on Day 3.

Scheffler, despite a wayward driver, moved into contention Friday thanks to a prolific short game. His tee-shot woes continued Saturday, missing three of his first six fairways. The difference was, his short game failed to bail him out in the third round.

Scheffler lost more than three shots to the field in strokes gained: putting and was 4-for-7 in scrambling on his way to a third-round 76 that dropped him into a tie for eighth and five shots off the lead held by Patrick Rodgers.

It was Scheffler’s worst round on Tour since the 2022 Players Championship when he tied for 55th after shooting 76 in both the second and final rounds. He’s also in danger of giving up shots to the field in strokes gained: tee to green for the second consecutive tournament following an equally poor driving performance last week at the WM Phoenix Open.

McIlroy had no issues off the tee — he’s leading the field in that category — but struggled on the greens, spotting the field nearly four shots (3.9) in strokes gained: putting. He needed 33 putts Saturday and made just 55 feet of putts, compared to 85 feet on Day 2.

The Northern Irishman, who won last month’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in his first start of the Tour season, was 1 over through 15 holes when he missed the green at the par-3 16th hole and made a sloppy double-bogey 5 to fall into a tie with Scheffler at 3 under.

The two will play alongside one another in Sunday’s final round.