PONTE VEDRA BEACH — Golfer Scottie Scheffler turned the Players Championship into another Sunday stroll to the winner’s circle.
Following her grandson’s 5-shot victory was Mary DeLorenzo. Less than two weeks shy of her 88th birthday, Scheffler’s maternal grandmother had to work to keep up during an idyllic day at TPC Sawgrass.
No one else came close to staying with Scheffer.
The new world No. 1 sucked all the drama out of a tournament decided by a single shot the past three editions and designed to keep things interesting until the final putt.
Scheffler, though, coasted at the PGA Tour’s showcase event. A final-round 3-under 69 left him 17-under 271 and well ahead of Englishman Tyrrell Hatton, who birdied his final five holes to keep open the possibility of a back-nine shake-up.
“Long day, tough day,” Scheffler said. “I knew the conditions were going to get really hard late and I did a really good job of staying patient. Then I got hot and tried to put things away as quickly as I could.”
Even with a big lead, Scheffler rarely was comfortable.
TPC Sawgrass closes with a three-hole stretch featuring a risk-reward par-5, a perilous par-3 surrounded by water and a brutish par-4 that ended the week the most-difficult hole.
But by the time Scheffler reached No. 16 he held a commanding lead built on a string of 5 birdies from holes Nos. 8 to 12. Following a par 5, he could be derailed only by a Len Mattiace-like meltdown on the No. 17 island green.
Scheffler stood on the 16th green and watched Tommy Fleetwood come up short and Cam Davis go long and into the drink amid swirling winds protecting the iconic par-3.
“It’s like you’re on a different planet. It’s just mad,” Hatton said of the 133-yard shot. “You have to guess right. I guessed right today.”
Rather than hit his ball, much less two as Mattiace did in 1998, Scheffler’s gap wedge landed safely on the putting surface to set up an easy two-putt par.
Asked what he was thinking, he said, “Please, please hit the green.”
Scheffler did not need divine intervention. His resounding win continued his rapid ascension to the top of the game.
Yet he views his No. 1 ranking as the fringe benefit of winning. So is the $4.5 million winner’s check, the richest in the sport.
Other numbers say more.
Sunday’s victory was his sixth during 26 starts. Scheffler’s 23% win rate is actually on par with Tiger Woods, who won 82 PGA Tour events in 372 starts (22%).
Scheffler also joined Woods as the only golfer to hold the Players and Masters at the same time since the tournament moved to TPC Sawgrass in 1982.
Such comparisons are folly given the sample size but do speak to Scheffler’s run of dominance.
“I’m just trying to get a little bit better at a time, not overthink things,” he said. “Fortunately to be able to see some good results and enjoy some wins.”
The latest was the biggest walk-away at TPC Sawgrass since Webb Simpson’s 4-shot win in 2018. Scheffler capped the victory in style, sinking a 20-foot par putt on the 18th hole to become just the fourth Players winner to record four rounds in the 60s.
When the putt dropped, Scheffler let out a smile and soon embraced his wife, Meredith Scudder, his high school sweetheart. Scudder pointed to his family standing on hill behind the 18th hole, singling out DeLorenzo.
During the trophy presentation, Scheffler gave her a shout-out.
“All 72 holes, Grandma?” he said for a national TV audience.
Scheffler later called DeLorenzo “a trooper.”
Grandma’s stamina and determination, especially having lost her husband in the past year, are hallmarks of her grandson’s game.
Scheffler entered the day with a 2-shot margin, but a sloppy bogey-4 after a poor chip on the par-4 third dropped him into a tie with Min Woo Lee.
Lee promptly fell out of the lead with a triple-bogey on the par-4 4th. Lee, 24 and seeking his win on Tour, never fully recovered and finished with a 76.
“It’s one of those things where it’s Sunday and you just make a couple bad decisions and it all kind of falls down,” Lee said. “But I hung in there pretty well. I didn’t have it all today.”
Contenders at the start of the day failed to mount a charge. In fact, Scheffler was the only golfer in the final 10 pairings to break 70.
A number of world-class challengers made moves.
But 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama (-9) and world No. 7 Max Homa (-8) stumbled with back-nine double-bogeys to stall their Sunday charges.
Hatton, who shot a Sunday-low 65, ran out of holes. World No. 11 Viktor Hovland (-10) parred his final five after making four birdies on a five-hole stretch beginning at No. 9.
Scheffler ignited his round with the short-game magic that has been his game’s foundation.
After his iron shot to the par-3 8th hole leaked right, Scheffler regrouped, gripped down below the metal of his wedge, stood in the bunker and chipped in for birdie and a 3-shot advantage. He then birdied the next four holes and never looked back.
A quiet confidence, killer instinct and knack for the moment belie the 6-foot-3 Texan’s aw-shucks approach. Scheffler merely called another big win, the No. 1 ranking and a Tiger-like run “fun.”
“As a person, I don’t feel any different,” he said. “I still feel the same as I did in college. I still feel like I might even be in high school. I mean, nothing much changes.”
