MacIntyre mostly went blow for blow against the world’s best player in the third round, shooting 68 to Scheffler’s 67, and by making a 41-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole, he gave himself a four-shot cushion heading into the penultimate Sunday of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs.

The win was Scheffler’s fifth of the year, making him the first player since Tiger Woods to win at least five times in consecutive years.

OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- Robert MacIntyre ducked his head under the branches and climbed into a mess of bushes behind the fifth green without a golf club, first seeing if he could find his ball and then deciding if it was worth trying to play it.