No one was holding Scottie Scheffler on Sunday.
Scheffler pulled off a stunning five-shot victory at The Players Championship on Sunday after tearing through TPC Sawgrass to claim the PGA Tour’s marquee tournament. It marked his sixth career win, and once again pushed him past Jon Rahm to take the top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking.
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Joining Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, Scheffler is now the third golfer in history to hold both The Players title and the Masters Championship title at the same time.
Starting with a two-shot lead, Scheffler took his time on Sunday morning. He also bogeyed his third hole of the day, which left the door wide open. Yet in the eighth, Scheffler took off completely.
Scheffler birdied the par-3 from a greenside bunker. It set off a wild run of five straight birdies, increasing his lead to six shots.
Up to that point, Scheffler cruised just to the finish. He made five pars and one bogey in his last six holes of the day to post a final round 69.
Scheffler increased his lead at the end of the incredibly long Saturday. On Saturday morning, Scheffler had to complete eight holes to complete his second round, which was stopped early due to rain. He then went from 7-under to 14-under in his third round, which gave him a two-shot lead over Min Woo Lee after 26 holes on the day.
While others were close, no one ranked in the top-10 in the world was within seven shots of him. This opened the door for Scheffler to overtake Jon Rahm – who withdrew Friday due to an illness – at No. 1 in the OWGR.
Scheffler said after Saturday, “I would much rather win a tournament than get back to No. 1 in the world.” “So my focus will be on tomorrow, just going out and having a solid round of golf.”
That’s exactly what he did. Thankfully for Scheffler, the win also came with a $4.5 million check and a return to No. 1.
Lee, after birdieing his first hole, tripled the fourth hole after hitting a shot into the water. This pushed him three shots back, and ended his chances of securing his first career Tour victory. He finished with a 4-over 76, which dropped him to T6. Tyrell Hatton finished in second place after posting a 7-under 65, which was the best round of the day and moved him 24 pots up the leaderboard. Victor Hovland and Tom Hogg tied for third with scores of 10-under.
Scheffler has now won six times in his career, all of which have come in his last 27. He has already won twice this season, the first of which came at the WM Phoenix Open last month. That win put him back at No. 1 on OWGR, though Rahm overtook him the following week at The Genesis Invitational. In 10 starts this season, Scheffler has finished worse than T12 only once.