In the midst of battle, Rory McIlroy said what everybody has been thinking for some time.
“Scottie Scheffler is…,” McIlroy began during his post-round television interview on Saturday evening.
He quickly gave way: “It’s inevitable.”
“He probably regrets saying that word,” McIlroy’s pal Shane Lowry said later.
Only McIlroy couldn’t have been more right. Scheffler began Sunday’s final round of the 153rd Open Championship four shots clear of the field. And like he’s done many times before, he never let up. The steely Scheffler relentlessly attacked Royal Portrush early, tapping in for a leadoff birdie before pushing to 17 under and a seven-shot advantage to give Henrik Stenson’s all-time Open marks (20 under and 264) scares. He’d slip, though ever so slightly, his lead back to four, before quickly regrouping to comfortably win his fourth major title – and third leg of the career Grand Slam.
Ultimately, Scheffler’s win came by four shots over Harris English, but it seemed so much greater than that.
Just 15 minutes from Giant’s Causeway, Scheffler solidified himself, if he hadn’t already, as pro golf’s version of Thanos – if Thanos carried a Bible.
“He’s setting the standard for professional golf right now,” English said as Scheffler played the final hole.
Added Rory McIlroy, the world’s second-ranked player, though a distant second behind the world No. 1 Scheffler: “He is the bar that we’re all trying to get to at this point. … None of us could live with what he had this week.”
At the start of this year, Robert MacIntyre’s curiosity led the rising Scot to check out some numbers, specifically just how far back he was from the No. 1 players in different statistics. It wasn’t long before MacIntyre’s stats guy had to adjust.
“He went to No. 2 because he realized it,” MacIntyre said. “I mean, when we checked the stats, Scheffler was further ahead of No. 2 in the world than I was at wherever I was … to No. 2.”
Scheffler entered the year’s final major ranked first in strokes gained approach, a category he’s led each of the last three seasons. He also was tops off the tee, 25th around the green and easily the most notable, 22nd in putting. Overall, he was nearly a shot better than the next best player, McIlroy, gaining over 2.6 shots per round on the field.
With the flatstick, Scheffler had improved from No. 162 two years ago to No. 77 last year.
“His putting is night and day obviously,” said Matt Fitzpatrick, who played with Scheffler on Saturday. “From what you guys all talk about how bad it was at one point; I didn’t play with him really in that period. He’s just not missed a putt today. There isn’t one putt that he’s missed, and that’s obviously the difference that’s taken him to this unbeatable run, which is annoying for me that Phil Kenyon shared those secrets.”
Scheffler’s improved putting helped him rack up 19 birdies and an eagle, but it also led to crucial par saves, including on the front nine Sunday, where Scheffler rolled in a 16-footer at the par-3 sixth and a 15-footer on the par-5 seventh to avoid dropping a shot. The latter incited a sturdy, waist-high fist pump from Scheffler.
“Putter was definitely a weapon this week,” Scheffler said with a grin. So, too – and far less surprisingly – was his mind: “I felt like this was one of my best performances mentally,” Scheffler added.
Before his double bogey at the par-4 eighth, Scheffler, who leads the Tour in bogey avoidance, had gone 32 holes without a bogey or worse.
And speaking of that double, where Scheffler’s second shot from a fairway bunker hit the lip and stayed in before Scheffler opted to lay up to 120 yards, Scheffler became the first Open champion since Padraig Harrington in 2007 to card a double bogey in the final round.
On cue, the Tour’s leader in the bounce-back stat stuffed his approach inside 5 feet at the par-4 ninth and rolled in the birdie to extend his lead back to five shots.
From there, inevitability. An easy birdie at the par-5 12th and eight more pars to shoot 17 under, 3-under 68 on Sunday, and the claret jug was all Scheffler’s. When the ball disappeared in the hole for the final time, Scheffler cooly plucked it from the hole before, in a burst, whipping off his hat and then extending both fists out to the side, fittingly in a cross-like manner.
Scheffler, at age 29, is now the 18th player to have captured at least three of the four majors – one of 12, and just one of three active players along with Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth, without all four legs. Scheffler’s first bid at the career slam will come at next summer’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, and considering his major record (four wins and 16 top-10s in just 23 starts as a pro), he’ll likely be the favorite there.
As Scheffler’s father, Scott, said as Scheffler embraced his family, including wife Meredith and 1-year-old son Bennett, just off the 18th green: “I’ve got no words.”
“I grew up waking up early to watch this tournament on TV, just hoping and dreaming I would get the chance to come play, and it’s pretty cool to be standing here with the trophy,” Scheffler said. “I felt a good amount of peace today. I felt very in control of how I was playing. I was very comfortable with my game. ... Every day’s a battle. Playing this game, it’s a battle within yourself all the time to try and get the best out of your game and yourself.”
And make no mistake, on this day, Scheffler versus himself was the only battle.
There were other headlines by Sunday evening:
Chris Gotterup, playing his first Open following last week’s Genesis Scottish Open victory, posted his best major finish (solo third) and bashed his way into the U.S. Ryder Cup picture. Speaking of bashing, Wyndham Clark limited the damage for the first time in a long time at a major, tying for fourth. Clark’s 197 closing 54-hole total was just one shy of Henrik Stenson’s record and matched by Bryson DeChambeau, who roared back after a 7-over start, playing his final 54 holes in 16 under to notch his second career Open top-10 and likely clinch another Ryder Cup berth. Haotong Li, eight years after his solo third at Royal Birkdale, gave all of China reason to celebrate again.
McIlroy was showered in praise all week by the home crowd, who had been anticipating McIlroy’s return ever since that emotional missed cut in 2019.
“This could be one of the coolest moments I’ve ever had on a golf course,” McIlroy said of his eagle Saturday at No. 12, which ignited the McIlroy faithful.
And yet, none of those storylines really mattered. Instead, they were significant footnotes to Scheffler’s latest layer of dominance.
Scheffler played the par-3s in 6 under this week, the best such Open performance ever. He was 3 under alone on Portrush’s famed 16th, nicknamed Calamity Corner.
He ranked first in strokes gained approach and putting.
He is the first player since John Henry Taylor to win each of his first four major titles by at least three shots. Taylor won his fourth major in 1909, over 100 years ago. And the only players to win multiple majors by four or more shots in the same year? Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods.
He is just the fifth to convert each of their first 54-hole leads at majors into trophies, though he has 10 more to go to match Woods. And in all competition, he’s perfect closing out his last 10 such leads.
He is the only other world No. 1 besides Woods to win The Open. And as it relates to his standing atop the Official World Golf Ranking, Scheffler moved to 20.25 average points; Woods is the only player to average better. Scheffler’s new gap on McIlroy is now nearly 8.7.
We could certainly go on for a quite a while here...
“If Scottie’s feet stayed stable and his swing looked like Adam Scott’s, we’d be talking about him in the same words as Tiger Woods,” Lowry said. “I just think because it doesn’t look so perfect, we don’t talk about him like that.”
But is Scheffler not already there? Increasingly, more and more think so.
“I don’t think we thought the golfing world would see someone as dominant as Tiger come through so soon, and here’s Scottie sort of taking that throne of dominance,” said Xander Schauffele, the current world No. 3. “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.”
Added Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee, in his “Live From” opening thought, “I can’t help but think that we are on an inevitable march toward one of the greatest careers in the history of golf.”
And Chamblee’s colleague Paul McGinley: “I have not seen a competitor anywhere close to Tiger Woods as good as this guy. That’s how high the bar is. And I think as time goes on, he might even prove to be a better one, he might even prove to have more longevity than Tiger Woods at the top.”
Woods took exactly 1,197 days after his first major title to win his fourth. And Scheffler? Eerily, the same: One thousand, one hundred and ninety-seven.
But what does Scheffler make of all the comparisons?
“I still think they’re a bit silly,” Scheffler said. “Tiger won what, 15 majors? This is my fourth, just got one-fourth of the way there. I think Tiger stands alone in the game of golf.”
Spieth, who preceded Scheffler’s stardom out of Dallas, did his best to explain Scheffler’s unassuming personality. Sure, Scheffler can talk trash with the best of them at home, but he’s also the same guy who, as he did earlier this week, will say of winning major championships, “What’s the point?” (Scheffler clarified those remarks Sunday evening, noting that he has tremendous gratitude for such moments and getting to live out his dream, but “at the end of the day, it doesn’t fulfill the deepest desires of my heart.”)
“He doesn’t care to be a superstar,” Spieth said. “He’s not transcending the game like Tiger did. He’s not bringing it to a non-golf audience necessarily. He doesn’t want to go do the stuff that a lot of us go do, corporately, anything like that. He just wants to get away from the game and separate the two. … I think it’s more so the difference in personality from any other superstar that you’ve seen in the modern era and maybe in any sport.
“I don’t think anybody is like him.”
No, not even close.
Scheffler, in his mind, is called to play golf, not necessarily win golf tournaments, or collect over $90 million in one-course earnings, which he’s now done. Golf is, decidedly, his third priority in life, behind his faith and his family.
“I try to live as normal of a life as possible because I feel like a normal guy,” Scheffler added. “I have the same friends I had growing up. I don’t think that I’m anything special just because some weeks I’m better at shooting a lower score than other guys are.”
He’ll let everyone else think that.
