Scottie's power hour ended all drama at PGA Championship

For the majority of Saturday at Quail Hollow, it looked as though the PGA Championship would come down to a star-studded three-man fight in the final round between Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau, and Jon Rahm.

DeChambeau walked to the 16th tee as the leader at 8-under with Scheffler part of a group in second just one stroke back. At the same time, Rahm was polishing off a round of 67 to set the clubhouse lead at 6-under. Social media was giddy at the prospect of another epic major Sunday, and television executives at CBS were likely doing cartwheels at how the tourney was playing out.

And then Scottie reminded everyone why his statistical profile is the most similar we've seen to prime Tiger Woods. An incredible surge turned the PGA Championship from high drama into a dud.

It started with one of the best par-4 tee shots Scheffler has ever hit, a power draw with a 3-wood that went 304 yards and ended just 3 feet from the cup for an electric eagle.

"I executed the shot," Scheffler said afterward, according to ASAP Sports. "Did I execute it thinking I hit it 2 feet or whatever it was? I mean, there's a little bit of luck involved in that when you're at 300 yards, but overall, I executed the shot exactly how I wanted to."

At the same time Scheffler was making light work of 14, DeChambeau was getting his lunch handed to him by the vaunted "Green Mile" - one of the toughest three-hole finishing stretches in professional golf.

DeChambeau - who had played near-flawless golf all day in racing out to the lead - dropped back into a tie at 7-under with a bogey on 16, but it was No. 17 where the gusty winds proved to be too much for the 31-year-old.

"Hit a great 9-iron exactly the way I wanted to. The wind just pumped it. Nothing I can do," DeChambeau said. "Wind flipped from being neutral off the right like it was on 4, I believe, and it just was almost straight in, and we misjudged that, considering on 16 we thought it was playing almost a little downwind."

The ensuing double-bogey led DeChambeau to play the final three holes in 3-over and drop from the lead at 8-under back to 5-under. While that was certainly less than ideal, Scheffler still had the tough closing stretch ahead, so there was no need to panic.

The "Green Mile" might as well be named after all the money Scheffler likely won over that three-hole stretch. Birdies on Nos. 17 and 18 after brilliantly struck approaches emphatically slammed the door shut and saw him finish with five- and six-stroke leads on Rahm and DeChambeau, respectively.

"Pretty much after hole 11 I feel like I hit a lot of really good shots. 13 I got a weird wind gust and then hit a poor bunker shot, but outside of that, I felt like I executed really well on back nine and hit the shots that I was trying to hit and was able to get some results from those," Scheffler explained.

"Birdieing the last two was definitely two extra shots. I mean, I would assume those holes are playing over par, and so I definitely stole a couple shots there, and it was nice momentum towards the end of the round."

Perhaps the best way to put Scheffler's closing stretch into context is to lean on Data Golf's summation of holes 14-18.

It's hard enough to battle with Scheffler from an even start, but trying to make up any sort of deficit is virtually impossible. He's converted his last seven 54-hole leads into victories and leads the PGA TOUR in bogey avoidance this season. Rahm and DeChambeau would need to shoot something in the mid-to-low 60s just to have an outside chance unless Scheffler collapses at Quail Hollow.

After Saturday's performance, that seems like just about the furthest thing from reality in the world of golf.