Scottie Scheffler rose back to World No.1 after his second place at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill – but it wasn’t of any real consolation for him after coming up just short against Brooks Koepka.
A smiling Scheffler said it was “nice” to go back to the top of the much-maligned Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) but laughed it off and said “I don’t really care” as he lamented finishing two stokes behind Koepka at Oak Hill.
Scheffler, Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy have all been trading top spot in the OWGR recently, and with the Spaniard struggling at Oak Hill he was replaced as World No.1 by the American.
“That's great,” Scheffler said when told the news at his post-round press conference, where he then added while laughing: “I mean, it's just an algorithm. It's nice, but I really don't care.
“I don't play for world ranking. I play to come out here and compete. Right now I'm a little sad that I wasn't able to get the tournament done, but I'm proud of how I fought, I'm proud of how I played the back nine today to give myself a chance.
"I got beat by somebody that played better this week, and tip of the cap to Brooks.”
Scheffler shot a fine 65 on Sunday but was too far back after a poor 73 on Saturday, which he says cost him the chance of winning the tournament.
"I did a good job of hanging in there and giving myself a chance," said Scheffler. "Saturday is probably what cost me the tournament.
"Major championship golf courses, it's really hard to play four rounds under par, and if you do, usually you're holding a trophy at the end. If I would have done that, that's where I would be this afternoon instead of going home with second."
He still had a chance on Sunday though, where Scheffler says that a couple of putts that didn't drop made a big difference.
"I had two of the worst lip-outs that I have ever seen on No. 1 and No. 9 today," Scheffler added.
"The balls were trickling, and I thought I was ready to take a step like they were going in. One horseshoed at trickle pace, and the other one lipped out and stayed about an inch from the edge.
"Outside the that I played solid golf most of the week. In order to win these tournaments, the putts have to fall in to win the tournaments. I hit a lot of good putts this week. They didn't fall, but I put up a good fight. I played great today.
"I gave the guys on top of the leaderboard something to think about, and I kind of made a little bit much a move, but Brooks just played some fantastic golf this week. He played too good this weekend for me to catch up to him."
