2026 St. Jude Championship leaderboard: Scottie Scheffler retains lead over fast-charging Sam Burns in Round 3

Scottie Scheffler will sleep on a 54-hole lead for the first time since the 2025 Open Championship, and the world No. 1 will hope Sunday brings the same outcome at the 2026 St. Jude Championship after a Saturday 68 got him to 13 under.

Scheffler began the day with a three-shot lead, but stumbled out of the gate. He was 1 over on his round after the first seven holes and had company at the top of the leaderboard as Viktor Hovland got off to a strong start to reach 10 under. Scheffler would finally break through for his first birdie of the day on the par-3 8th, getting him back on track after providing hope to the chase pack.

While Scheffler dragged his feet early in his third round, Sam Burns was racing into contention ahead of him. Burns nearly matched Scheffler for the low round of the week (and a share of the course record), firing a bogey-free, 8-under 62 to get to 11 under and briefly tie Scheffler for the lead.

The world No. 1 would kick it into gear on the back nine and restore order with birdies on Nos. 11, 12 and 16. He gave one of those back on the 17th and couldn’t convert a great look for birdie on the 18th, but even with a finish he’ll think should’ve been better, Scheffler will take a two-shot lead into the weekend over Burns and Sungjae Im — who shot a 67 alongside Scheffler in the final pairing.

On Sunday, it will be Burns who gets the honor of joining his close buddy in the final pairing, and that comfortable final group will have a friendly duel for a win both feel is much-needed. Scheffler’s season of close calls has been well-documented, as he’s gone more than 200 days since his win at the American Express in January. Since then, he’s had five runner-up finishes but just enough hiccups to keep him from lifting another trophy.

Burns, meanwhile, has had arguably the best season of his career statistically — and unquestionably the best year of his career in majors — but he’s still without a win in 2026. On Sunday, they’ll hope one of those droughts comes to an end, but they’ll have to fend off Im and hope no one a bit further back fires one of those 61s or 62s that got Scheffler and Burns into this position.

Sunday contenders

T2. Sam Burns, Sungjae Im (-11)
T4. Jake Knapp, Tommy Fleetwood (-8)
T6. Si Woo Kim, Hideki Matsuyama, Brian Harman, Alex Noren (-7)

This feels like a three-horse race between Scheffler, Burns and Im, but as we’ve seen already this week, there are some really low scores out there if players get in a flow on the greens. If Knapp, Fleetwood or one of the group at 7 under can produce a 62, perhaps that’d be enough to swipe another victory away from Scheffler. They will all know that they have to take it deep, and if any of them can thrive playing on the edge, perhaps a special round is in play.

Im handled the final pairing nerves nicely and shot a quality 67 that keeps him in the mix. He’ll probably feel like he needs to improve on that score to get his first win in five years, but he will also be balancing his desire to win with the knowledge that all he has to do is land the plane to lock up a top 50 spot and lock himself into next week’s BMW Championship and all of the 2027 signature events.

Burns and Scheffler have no doubt about whether they’ll be in Atlanta for the Tour Championship, so the final pairing will only care about the win, but the playoff math will be part of the equation for Im, Harman and some of the rest jockeying for a spot in St. Louis next week and Atlanta for the Tour Championship.

Bubble Watch

It is getting tight in the battle for the top 50, and Sunday will feature players sweating it out all day — literally and figuratively in the 100 degree temperatures in Memphis. As of now, Im is the only man projected to play his way into the BMW that began the week outside the top 50. Jordan Spieth and Sudarshan Yellamaraju were in that group coming into Saturday, but a 72 from Spieth dropped him to T19 and 53rd in the projections, while Yellamaraju imploded with a 76 that has him out of the conversation entirely.

Maverick McNealy is back in the same spot he started the week in the 50th spot, with Keith Mitchell also staying put in 49th currently. They’re both tied for 22nd and will be scoreboard watching all day to find out if they need to just tread water or if Spieth, Harman or Matt McCarty are able to make a big enough move to force them to find some birdies.

Updated 2026 St. Jude Championship odds, picks

• Scottie Scheffler (2/5)
• Sam Burns (9/2)
• Sungjae Im (15/2)

The odds list bears out that this has become a three-horse race, with Scheffler unsurprisingly the massive favorite. He proved on Saturday that he can withstand a slow start and still turn things around mid-round and he will be plenty comfortable playing alongside Burns on Sunday. As deserving as Burns is of a win this season, it’s going to be uphill sledding to reel in and pass Scheffler on a course that seems so well-suited to his game right now.