There may have been barely a shred of light left Saturday night at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson, but after one more birdie – in the dark – Scottie Scheffler will head into Sunday’s finale at TPC Craig Ranch with an eight-shot lead.

And very likely the first step towards a return to the PGA TOUR winner circle.

Scheffler, who is looking for his first win of 2025, was 2 under after three holes in his third round before giving one back on the par-3 4th – his first bogey of the week. He added another birdie on the par-5 9th before bogeying the par-4 11th.

He drove the green on the short par-4 14th, leaving his tee ball just 13 feet away en route to another birdie. He added circles on his card on Nos. 15 and 18 to come in with a 5-under 66.

“It was good golf. I did a good job getting it around today,” Scheffler explained. “I definitely wasn’t as sharp as I was the last two days, but overall I posted a pretty good score. Over a 72-hole tournament you're going to have days, or typically at least one day where your swing's not firing on all cylinders like it was the first two days. It's all about how you battle through that.”

Scheffler’s previous low 54-hole total on the PGA TOUR is 193, which came at the 2024 Travelers Championship, which he would go on to win.

He’s at 23-under 190 through three rounds at TPC Craig Ranch – essentially his hometown event. He got his first TOUR start here in 2014 while still in high school.

“This tournament means a lot to me,” Scheffler said. “I grew up coming out here to watch.

“Tomorrow should be a fun day and a good opportunity for me to go out and have a good round and hopefully win a tournament.”

If Scheffler were to go on to win, it would be his first official win since the TOUR Championship last September (Scheffler won the Hero World Challenge in December). Scheffler has five top-10s so far this season, with his best result, a T2, coming at the Texas Children’s Houston Open.

The widest margin of victory in Scheffler’s career was five shots, which he’s done twice – at both the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and THE PLAYERS Championship in 2023.

Unless Scheffler completely implodes Sunday, the margin-of-victory number could likely be in jeopardy.

The last golfer to have an eight-shot lead on the PGA TOUR through 54 holes was Rory McIlroy at the 2011 U.S. Open.

The reigning Player of the Year is not teeing it up next week at the Truist Championship (he did not play the event in 2024, either) but is set to be in action at the PGA Championship, the second major of the year.

There is a three-way tie for second heading into Sunday with Erik van Rooyen, Adam Schenk and Ricky Castillo all at 15 under.

Van Rooyen, Schenk, and Castillo all have a great chance to earn their way into the Truist Championship via the Aon Swing 5 if they remain near the top of the board come Sunday night. With Scheffler’s big-time advantage, a secondary prize may be the thing they’re shooting for.

“He's the best player in the world for a reason,” Schenk said. “I try to think of a situation where it's an advantage to me to catch up to him tomorrow and I really can't come up with one – unless I just make a whole bunch of putts.”

The third round was delayed with the second round needing to be pushed into Saturday morning due to a six-plus hour weather delay Friday. Golfers teed off in threesomes of Nos. 1 and 10.