Not every major championship keeps fans on the edge of their seats, like for example this year’s Masters.
Sometimes, a player just has it, while almost casually hitting fairways, greens and making putts.
That's how Scottie Scheffler got it done at the British Open.
The world No. 1 made it look easy at Royal Portrush en route to claiming his fourth career major and second this season with a four-stroke victory, finishing at 17 under.
“Being able to walk up 18 with the tournament in hand is a really tough thing to describe,” Scheffler said. “It’s a really cool feeling. I have a lot of gratitude towards being able to accomplish something like this. It’s taken a lot of work—not only a lot of work, but it takes a lot of patience.”
The 29-year-old Texan took a four-stroke lead into the final round—and almost everyone knew what was coming next: Scheffler hoisting the Claret Jug in the fading Northern Ireland sun.
On Saturday night, Rory McIlroy said Scheffler felt “inevitable.” Haotong Li, who was paired with Scheffler in the final round, admitted, “Four shots behind, kind of like play for second, especially play with world No. 1. I just try to play my best out there and hopefully make something happen.” And Matt Fitzpatrick, when asked about his victory hopes entering Sunday, said he was hoping for “a blowup” from Scheffler.
Good luck with that. Scheffler has converted eight straight 54-hole leads on Tour.
Scheffler made a bogey on the 11th hole in Round 2, and it would be another two days before he made another. On the par-4 8th in the final round, he failed to get out of a fairway bunker and that double bogey dropped his lead to four.
Was he finally human? Maybe in that moment, but Scheffler seldomly, if ever, gets rattled. And that’s why he cruised to victory by playing his final 10 holes at 2 under to card a final-round 68.
“Really the only blemish over the last 36 holes was the double on [No. 8],” Scheffler said, “but did a good job of resetting and coming back with a birdie on [No. 9].”
Scheffler led the field in strokes-gained putting, a part of his game that likely cost him even more victories in 2023, when he ranked 162nd on Tour in that statistic. He was also first this week in strokes-gained approach, which isn’t surprising from arguably the best ball striker on the planet. Plus, he played the par-3s this week in 6 under, the best in British Open history.
The 17-time PGA Tour winner went to the 72nd hole leading by four strokes. He hit a bullet-fade with an iron down the middle, knocked his approach safely onto the green and two-putted for the win.
Harris English finished runner-up at 13 under. Last week’s Genesis Scottish Open champion Chris Gotterup was third at 12 under, and Fitzpatrick, Li and Wyndham Clark finished at 11 under. Hometown favorite Rory McIlroy placed T7 with Robert MacIntyre and defending champion Xander Schauffele.
Winning at a pace not seen since Tiger Woods, Scheffler seems to make history almost every time he tees it up.
It took Woods 1,197 days to win his fourth major after winning his first. Scheffer? He coincidentally won his first major at the 2022 Masters, 1,197 days ago.
It’s always good to be mentioned in the same sentence as arguably the game’s greatest player. And perhaps Scheffler is on his way to putting himself on the Mount Rushmore of golfers.
Many of the game’s greats—Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan—squeaked out victories, but also had dominant performances that showed why they’re a cut above the rest of the field.
Scheffler did just that at Royal Portrush, making him the third player in the last century to win four majors by three or more strokes. The other two? Nicklaus and Woods.
“I don’t think we thought the golfing world would see someone as dominant as Tiger come through so soon,” Schauffele said, “and here’s Scottie sort of taking that throne of dominance. You can't even say he's on a run. He’s just been killing it for over two years now. He’s a tough man to beat, and when you see his name up on the leaderboard, it sucks for us.”
Now the Champion Golfer of the Year, he has won three of the sport’s four majors. With a victory at the U.S. Open next year, in which the final round falls on his 30th birthday, Scheffler can become the seventh player to complete the career Grand Slam.
“To win all four major championships is pretty dang special,” Scheffler said. “It’s for sure a career achievement. Like I said, I don’t focus too much on that stuff. When this season ends after the Ryder Cup for me, I’ll get home, and I’ll assess kind of where my game's at and things I can improve on and then kind of go from there. I don't think about winning tournaments. I just look at the body of work I have and just think about ways to improve.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Scottie Scheffler Sails to Four-Shot Win at British Open.
