CHARLOTTE, N.C. – It took 82 minutes for Scottie Scheffler to take control of the 107th PGA Championship.

Time has moved slowly this week at Quail Hollow Club. Early week rains delayed final preparations. A curve ball of a leaderboard after the opening round took some of the buzz out of the season’s second major.

Even Saturday morning, the clock’s movement felt more deliberate as another band of storms rearranged third-round tee times.

As the sun shined brightly upon the lush tournament grounds Saturday afternoon, there was a sense in the air that the entire tournament was waiting for … something. Then Scheffler stepped to the 14th tee, knocked a 3-wood to inside 3 feet to set up a kick-in eagle and put his stamp on the proceedings in Charlotte while getting one hand on what would be his third major title.

Time moved quickly once that ball was in the air for Scheffler, both for him and the combatants surrounding him on the leaderboards lining the Green Mile. Scheffler stood on the 14th tee at 6 under, having just dropped a shot on the par-3 13th to fall two shots off the lead of Bryson DeChambeau. But DeChambeau found the water on No. 17 just minutes before Scheffler made eagle on No. 14, and the cascade of momentum went in opposite directions.

DeChambeau played closing three holes in 3 over to finish at 5 under, while Scheffler was only getting started in his effort to distance himself from an otherwise crowded leaderboard that at one point featured a five-way tie at the top. He followed with a birdie on the par-5 15th, played the difficult 16th to perfection and birdied the last two holes of Quail Hollow’s infamously difficult closing stretch – lacing his tee shot on No. 17 to 18 feet and rolling in a 9-foot birdie on the last green despite finding a divot off the tee.

Tale of the tape: five holes, 5 under, a five-shot swing from trailing by two to leading by three entering the final round.

“I felt like I executed really well on the back nine and hit the shots that I was trying to hit,” Scheffler said. “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 toward the end of the round.”

A week that began with Scheffler discourse focused around mud balls has slowly, steadily shifted to the merits of the world’s top-ranked player. His watery double bogey on No. 16 in the opening round is a thing of the past, as his scores have been on a gradual decline: first 69, then 68, now 65 on the par-71 layout to take a three-shot cushion over Alex Noren and at least a four-shot gap over everyone else.

Scheffler didn’t just turn on the afterburners, he did so over the course’s most difficult stretch. Nos. 16-18 have played as the three most difficult this week, and they were three of the five hardest on Saturday. Scheffler barely broke a sweat, later explaining that the hardest shot he hit in that stretch was the only one that resulted in par.

“The iron shot I actually hit into 16 might have been the most challenging,” he explained. “I think that was probably one of the best shots I hit today. Just hit it pretty much exactly how I wanted to and gave myself a good birdie look.”

Outside of a single mud ball wobble, Scheffler’s performance this week at Quail Hollow has felt like a bulldozer. Slowly but surely he has made progress, inching closer to the grand prize on a course where his only prior result was a winless campaign at the 2022 Presidents Cup. Up until late Saturday afternoon, he never felt like he was threatening a runaway performance like the one he authored two weeks ago while tying the PGA TOUR’s all-time scoring record.

But in barely more than an hour, Scheffler authored what will likely prove to be the turning point of this year’s PGA Championship. Much can happen across 18 holes, and six other players will start the day within five shots of the lead – including two-time major champ Jon Rahm.

That group does not include Matt Fitzpatrick, who dropped from the final grouping into a tie for eighth at 5 under, six shots off the lead. The former U.S. Open champ was asked after the round to discern a path to victory, and he said what everyone on the grounds at Quail Hollow seems to be thinking.

“Just make every putt I look at, I’ll have a chance,” Fitzpatrick said. “But I don’t see Scottie bobbling it.”