Viktor Hovland catches Scottie Scheffler late Saturday to take lead at the Travelers

CROMWELL, Conn. — There are days when Scottie Scheffler looks as if he is about to turn a golf tournament into a documentary about inevitability. Friday at the Travelers Championship was one of those days.

He shot 60, took the lead and made TPC River Highlands look like the kind of place where he might spend the weekend conducting business, signing for birdies and politely ruining everyone else’s plans.Viktor Hovland had other ideas Saturday.Fans coming to the course to witness a coronation were instead treated 18 holes of back-and-forth shot making, with a twist at the end.

Hovland did not just hang around in the third round at TPC River Highlands. He announced himself early, absorbed Scheffler’s best stretch late and then took the lead on the final hole, shooting 6-under 64 to reach 20 under for the tournament. Scheffler, after appearing to seize control with four birdies in five holes on the back nine, bogeyed the 18th and settled for a 67, leaving him one shot behind Hovland entering Sunday.

“It was really fun,” Hovland said. “It’s been a while since I’ve been in this position.”When he’s on, Viktor Hovland looks like one of the most talented players in the world, but he has also spent parts of the last few seasons looking like a man trying to find the instruction manual for his own swing.

When things click, as they did Friday and Saturday, his tempo and his ball flight look robotically precise. When he is off, it can look like someone scrambling to reboot a laptop in a thunderstorm.Saturday, paired in the last group of the day with the No.

1 player in the world, was more progress.The Norwegian birdied the first hole to get within one of Scheffler. He made another at the third after Scheffler had stuffed his approach to 2 feet.

At the fourth, Hovland hit his approach inside Scheffler and made the putt to tie him at 17 under.Hovland, with a grin on his face many times as he walked the fairways, did not look like a player who was nervous to be in the final pairing. H