Scottie Scheffler was fearless on a TPC Sawgrass course that may jangle the nerves on each gap. The wind was getting stronger, the targets appeared smaller, and all he wished was to verify his lead received bigger in The Players Championship.
“You can’t limp in on this golf course,” he stated. “You’ve got to hit the shots.” He did each little bit of that Sunday in a masterful efficiency that solely enhanced his fame as a participant who’s at his greatest when enjoying one of the best on this planet.
Scheffler ran off 5 straight birdies in the midst of his spherical, constructed a six-shot lead and left all of the drama to everybody else on his solution to a 3-under 69 to win the richest prize on the PGA Tour by 5 pictures.
As a half-dozen gamers tried to make a recreation of it, Scheffler took on the daunting Players Stadium Course as if he was enjoying alone.
And that’s how he made it look.
“Just looks like he’s calm, just doing his business, not really worrying what everyone else is doing and churning out birdies,” Cam Davis stated.
The victory was value $4.5 million and despatched Scheffler again to No. 1 on this planet for the second time this 12 months. He now has six victories in his final 27 begins on the PGA Tour, together with the 4 wins he had final 12 months culminated by his Masters title.
When he poured in a 20-foot par putt on the ultimate gap, Scheffler had the biggest margin of victory in The Players since Stephen Ames gained by six in 2006.
“I got hot in the middle of the round and tried to put things away as quickly as I can,” Scheffler stated.
He was main by 5 and standing on the sixteenth inexperienced when he appeared throughout the lake and noticed Davis hit his tee shot over the island inexperienced on the par-3 seventeenth, after which Tommy Fleetwood come up quick.
That was the aim. Build a giant lead in order that even when he joined the dozen gamers who hit into the water on Sunday, no less than it couldn’t value him. Like all the things else for Scheffler on at the present time, it was no downside. He hit a super shot to 10 toes, made par and the remaining was simple.
And then the celebration was on together with his spouse, dad and mom, sister and 87-year-old grandmother, who stored tempo with him for a lot of the day.
That’s one thing the strongest subject of the 12 months couldn’t do.
Tyrrell Hatton birdied his final 5 holes for a 65, ending when Scheffler was making the flip. Viktor Hovland (68) and Tom Hoge (70) have been seven pictures behind in a tie for third, every making almost $1.5 million from the $25 million purse.
Scheffler, who completed at 17-under 271, grew to become solely the third participant to win on the TPC Sawgrass with all 4 rounds within the 60s.
Min Woo Lee of Australia, making his Players Championship debut, briefly was tied for the lead however completed with a 76.
Lee made one too many blunders, not that it could have modified something the way in which Scheffler lit up the TPC Sawgrass. One of them got here on the par-4 fourth, when Lee was tied for the lead. He chipped out of the tough solely to have his third shot spin again into the water, resulting in a triple bogey.
By the time he recovered, Scheffler was racing away.
It began when Scheffler chipped in from the collar of a bunker on the par-3 eighth, and he closed out the entrance 9 with an aggressive play on the par-5 ninth that arrange a chip-and-a-putt birdie.
Hatton teed off two hours forward of Scheffler, and he capped off his closing run of 5 straight birdies as Scheffler headed for the again 9. Hatton, the primary participant to shoot 29 on the again 9 at Sawgrass on a Sunday, posed at 12-under 276.
The wind was gusting near 30 mph, which solely provides to the difficulty on this course. Scheffler stayed aggressive, although, holing an 18-foot birdie on the tenth, two-putting from 70 toes on the par-5 eleventh and taking up the reachable par-4 twelfth with a 3-wood to pin excessive excellent of the inexperienced. That arrange his fifth straight birdie, and a six-shot lead.
For the ultimate two hours, it was a cash seize for everybody else — and a few wasted money for many who fell sufferer to the wind and water and the merciless Players Stadium Course.
Hatton, who began the ultimate spherical 9 pictures behind, completed off his 5 straight birdies with a 4-iron out of the pine straw and across the bushes to twenty toes.
He gained $2,725,000 — simply over $1 million greater than his Bay Hill victory in 2020.
Hideki Matsuyama was inside one shot — this was earlier than Scheffler went on his birdie run — solely to take double bogey on the 14th, fail to birdie the par-5 sixteenth and bogey the 18th. He was 7 beneath for the spherical by way of 13 holes and needed to accept a 68.
The largest meltdown belonged to PGA Tour rookie Taylor Montgomery, who was tied for fourth till a bogey on the fifteenth, a double bogey on No. 16 (with out hitting within the water) and two balls within the water on the seventeenth — a full shot and a chip — for a quintuple-bogey 7.
He dropped 40 spots on the leaderboard, and at No. 55 on this planet, that stored him from cracking the highest 50 within the rating and sure securing a spot within the Masters.
Ultimately, although, this was a one-man present.
Scheffler gained for the sixth time within the final 13 months, all of them towards a number of the strongest fields in golf. Commissioner Jay Monahan launched him because the PGA Tour participant of the 12 months in 2022, and now the Players champion in 2023.
“He’s in a good position to be able to continue to do this a while,” Jordan Spieth stated.