By early Sunday afternoon, it was clear that all Scottie Scheffler’s picture-perfect golf was lacking was a flair for the dramatic. Scheffler started the Tour Championship in Atlanta five strokes behind and quickly extended his lead to seven after the first two holes.
But then the drama began. At first there were just the faintest signs of crack before the best golfer on the planet hit his worst shot of the day: a shanked shot from a greenside bunker on the eighth hole that Scheffler turned into a bogey for an easy birdie. The ruthlessly steady Collin Morikawa suddenly found himself two strokes behind. Is there a collapse in the mix reminiscent of the one in 2022, when Scheffler blew a six-stroke lead to Rory McIlroy in the final round of the FedEx Cup?
I will never allow that to happen.
Scheffler scored impressive birdies on the next three holes and just kept winning the rest of the way. The 28-year-old Dallas native won the TOUR Championship by four strokes, capping off one of the greatest golf seasons of all time. It was Scheffler’s seventh PGA TOUR victory, including the Masters and Players Championships but not including the Olympic gold medal he won a month ago in Paris.
The Highland Park native became the first player since statistics were kept to lead the PGA Tour in both green in regulation (73%) and average putting strokes per hole (1.69). In 2000, Tiger Woods had the best season anyone could remember, winning the U.S. Open by 15 strokes, the British Open by eight strokes and the PGA Championship, but while he led the green in regulation, he finished second to Brad Faxon in putting. Simply put, if you can get to the green the fastest and make the fewest putts, you’re nearly impossible to beat, and that’s where Tour players found themselves facing Scheffler in 2024.
Now, given the format of the Tour Championship, the player with the most FedEx points in a season is awarded a two- to 10-stroke lead over the other players. Scheffler isn’t used to receiving strokes; he said earlier this week that he’ll play at plus-seven when competing for fun in Dallas, meaning that if you’re a scratch golfer with a zero handicap, the Scotties will give you strokes for seven holes.
Well, this week Morikawa shot six and Sahith Teegala shot seven. Both played great golf, with Morikawa finishing at -26 after four rounds at 22 under and Teegala finishing at -24 after 21 under. Scheffler, who started at -10, finished at -30 after four rounds at 20 under, but that doesn’t mean his two closest rivals were ahead of him. Scheffler spent the back nine Sunday with a four- or five-stroke lead and wasn’t even looking for birdie on the par-5 18th as he clinched the Tour Championship title.
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The magical golf that Dallas’ Jordan Spieth (who recently had wrist surgery after a lost season) showed nearly a decade ago never lasted long. He made more 20-foot putts than anyone in living memory, but his swing was never the best on tour. Scheffler is the best — yes, his feet dance on his drives, despite that — and his putting is better than his reputation on the greens suggests. He may be the best chipper of all time (except for that hosel coming off the sand on the eighth hole).
Not only did Scheffler set a tour record with a scoring average of 68.0, he also ranked first in approaches from 50-100 yards, 100-125 yards, and 125-150 yards. So it’s hard to imagine, let alone design, a golf course on which Scheffler can’t win. We should look for a few more major championships to come, and a dozen more wins, but Scheffler may not be at the top of the list by 2024.
“He can hit every shot,” Morikawa said. “He never gets upset. He shanked one, really shanked it on the eighth, but then he came back with three straight birdies. It’s tough to overcome a six-stroke deficit against the best player in the world. I love watching Scotty win. I’ve been watching him win for a long time.”
And the chances of us ever seeing a golfer win the Masters, the Players Championship, the Tour Championship and an Olympic gold medal in the same year must be incredibly slim. Add in the variables: Scheffler became a father and even “did push-ups in jail” (charges quickly dropped). Nobody has had a better year.
Twitter/X: @TimCowlishaw
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