Matthew Coritz

The wind was howling on TPC Sawgrass’ 17th hole. The stadium setup seemed to turn the normally uni-directional wind into a swirling vortex of unpredictability. Max Homa had just gone into the water and double bogeyed. Taylor Montogomery had just dropped 2 in the water and carded a quadruple bogey 7. Thousands looked on as Scottie Scheffler stepped up the tee. Just a mere 133 yards away, the flag sat tucked behind the front bunker on the 81-foot by 78-foot island green that has crushed so many dreams over the years. After a long conversation with his caddy Ted Scott, Scheffler stepped up and flushed a wedge to 10 feet. Golfers dream of the opportunity to birdie one of the most famous holes in golf to take home the Players Championship Trophy, which features the famous “gold man” standing on the 17th green, knowing he conquered it. Scheffler had his chance with a short left-to-right putt he’s probably made thousands of times. He missed. Crushing. But actually, it didn’t matter. Not one bit. Scheffler absolutely blitzed the field on Sunday. By the time he reached 17, he was 5 strokes clear of the next man and barring a collapse of epic proportions, the trophy was already in hand. 

With a difficult course setup on Sunday, everybody at the top of the leaderboard seemed to be tightening up and going backward. Everyone except for Scheffler. He birdied five in a row from hole 8 to hole 12, and never looked back. The 20-footer he rolled in for par on the 72nd hole of the tournament was the icing on the cake, making him the first winner to shoot all 4 rounds in the sixties since 2006. On the broadcast, Paul Azinger was in awe after Scheffler went with aggressive shot after aggressive shot, not your typical old-school strategy of playing with the lead. But this is a new era, and Scheffler put on an absolute clinic on how to play with the lead. It’s like watching your favorite soccer team score first. Everything tells you they should keep the same game plan and go for another goal, but time after time managers get defensive and try to hang on by a thread to keep the one-goal lead. Golf is the same way. Keep the same game plan and play your game because Sunday afternoon is not the time to play with second thoughts. Take advantage of the birdie holes by attacking the short par 4’s and par 5’s, but play to the center of the greens on the par 3’s and long par 4’s. 

This seems to be a weekly theme of the articles, but yet again we have a new number 1 player in the world. Scheffler has regained his place on the throne after his 6th win in the last 13 months. Not to mention he has blown two leads over 4 shots. He is just always found at the top of the leaderboard. He also joins Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to hold the Players title and the Masters title simultaneously. Not a bad list to be on.

A narrative that’s seeming to gain steam is that Scottie Scheffler is boring. I think this really comes down to what you define as boring. Do you want someone who continues to get into trouble, but is a magician getting himself out? Do you want somebody who is fiery and wears his heart on his sleeve? If you do, Scheffler may not be your guy. But he’s anything but boring. Once you realize how genius he is at playing golf, not just hitting shots, you’ll understand his true brilliance. There is so much strategy to each shot that the casual fan can often overlook. He is rarely, if ever, in a bad spot and won this week by 5 strokes with field average putting. That is incredible ball striking and course management. Don’t get me wrong, I love a player who charges energy into the game of golf, but to call Scheffler boring completely misses the mark.

After the talk last week about next year’s elevated events’ new format, it sure would have been ironic if somebody who won’t make it into the fields next year won an elevated event. And that looked like a strong possibility heading into the weekend. Chad Ramey and Ben Griffin were among the names at the top of a leaderboard lacking some star power. The pressure is just a little different when the weekend comes around. Sunday backed up that theory, with the cream of the crop rising to the top. Tyrell Hatton lit up the back 9 with a -7 29 to finish solo second, including one the most ridiculous shots you’ll see with his approach into the 18th green.  Players like Viktor Hovland and Hideki Matsuyama also made their way up the board to finish inside the top 5. After 5 elevated events so far this year, Jon Rahm and Scheffler have combined to win 4 of them, with Kurt Kitayama, also a top 40 player in the world, taking the fifth. The idea that limiting the fields next year will change the results so far has not proven true at all. Who knows, at this rate, we might as well just have Scheffler and Rahm tee it up 1 v 1 every week.