CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jon Rahm walked down the sloping sixteenth fairway at Quail Hole Nation Membership along with his head bowed. The strict facial features he hid beneath his shiny pink hat gave nothing away because the sounds that got here from the close by 14th inexperienced throughout the water, the place Scottie Scheffler had simply made birdie to go up by two pictures, all however spelled out his main championship destiny.
“Even if you don’t want to look at leaderboards,” Rahm mentioned, “the crowd lets you know.”
For a short second, Rahm had appeared able to doing the unthinkable: monitoring down the No. 1 participant on the earth, who started the day 5 pictures forward of Rahm, on a significant championship Sunday. After tying the lead on the eleventh gap due to Scheffler’s uncharacteristic 2-over entrance 9, it appeared like Rahm had hoovered up the momentum and was able to run downhill on his technique to the Wanamaker Trophy.
However beating Scheffler requires greater than only a single stretch of fine golf. The now three-time main winner’s trademark shouldn’t be flash however steadiness and an uncanny capacity to be unflappable within the face of errors. The stress he places on his opponents occurs organically; his recreation is so sound and bulletproof that these making an attempt to beat him know the trouble required to outlast the very best participant on the earth will probably be herculean.
Scheffler’s inevitability hung within the humid Charlotte air all of Sunday. It’s why by the point Rahm walked off the sixteenth inexperienced with a bogey and Scheffler had performed 14 and 15 in 2 beneath, the Spaniard couldn’t assist however go for broke. His tee shot on the par-3 seventeenth gap discovered the water. Recreation over.
“This back nine will be one that I remember for a long time,” Scheffler mentioned. “To step up when I needed to the most, I’ll remember that for a while.”
Nineteen years in the past through the 2006 PGA Championship, Luke Donald watched the same form of film unfold. Donald — then the Tenth-ranked participant on the earth — held a share of the lead after 36 holes and shot a 66 at Medinah Nation Membership on Saturday to get to 14 beneath. There was just one downside: Tiger Woods shot a course-record 65 that day to go into Sunday in a tie for the lead with Donald. To that time, Woods had been 11-0 in majors the place he held no less than a share of the 54-hole lead.
“Tiger had this sort of aura that you just feel like you need to do more than you need to really elevate your game to beat him,” Donald mentioned Sunday after ending his closing spherical at Quail Hole. “And I think he understood that.”
That Sunday, Woods and Donald performed within the closing pairing collectively, and Woods shot 68 on his technique to securing his twelfth main victory by 5 pictures over second place. On Sunday in Charlotte, Scheffler, who’s now 3-0 with a 54-hole lead at a significant, completed with the identical margin of victory: 5 strokes.
“He just sort of played his game, didn’t make too many mistakes and wore you down, and I certainly experienced that in 2006,” Donald mentioned of Woods. “I think Scottie is a similar kind of player when he gets the lead.”
Since Scheffler gained the 2024 Masters and positioned himself firmly on high of the game, quite a bit has occurred. Xander Schauffele has gained two majors, Bryson DeChambeau reached two majors himself, and Rory McIlroy lastly secured his inexperienced jacket and the Grand Slam.
Scheffler has been removed from forgotten in that point interval — he has gained six instances on tour and had three extra top-10 finishes at majors — however a small narrative was beginning to sprout: When will Scheffler win a significant that isn’t the Masters?
That Rahm was Scheffler’s foil on Sunday was becoming. They’ve positioned inexperienced jackets on one another’s shoulders, they usually entered the event with two majors apiece. Now, Scheffler slides above not simply Rahm however DeChambeau, Schauffele, Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas, too. He’s the participant of his technology, and everybody else is solely making an attempt to play catch-up.
“There were times where I feel like I pressed,” DeChambeau, who completed tied for second place, mentioned. “I’ve got to be more precise and fix what I can fix to make myself more consistent and get up there, the likes of what Scottie is doing right now.”
Over the previous 24 months, nobody has acquired extra reward from his friends than Scheffler, as they’ve all tried to elucidate his greatness whereas concurrently marveling at it, too.
“I’ve played a lot of golf with him, and it seems like every shot has a magnitude of force and just finds its way up there,” Sam Burns mentioned.
With Scheffler, none of it ever feels off the rails. Even after making three bogeys on the entrance 9 and combating a miss to the left along with his swing, he didn’t seem flustered. All week he had been working along with his coach, Randy Smith, on transferring his hips towards the goal extra effectively, and for a second, it appeared the dangerous habits had been making their manner into his swing once more. However then, Scheffler stepped up on the Tenth tee, aimed extra proper on the suggestion of his caddie Ted Scott, made certain he made a full physique flip and striped it. One thing clicked. After three extra birdies by means of 15 holes, Scheffler’s victory felt inevitable as soon as once more.
“I felt like this was as hard as I battled for a tournament in my career,” mentioned Scheffler, whose driver was additionally deemed nonconforming earlier than the event, forcing him to play with a brand new one this week. “Finishing off a major championship is always difficult. I didn’t have my best stuff, but I kept myself in it. I was battling my swing the first couple days.”
Scheffler has already attracted loads of comparisons to Woods over his previous two seasons because of his elite ballstriking. However that he can win with out his greatest after which win by quite a bit when he does faucet into it, can be akin to what Woods did in his prime.
“He just doesn’t get too high or low, but his game speaks for himself,” Donald mentioned. “And he hates to lose.”
As Scheffler has gained extra and grow to be a fixture within the sport’s highlight, he’s allowed himself to point out and inform simply precisely how a lot he desires it. On the 2024 Masters, he shared how nervous he had been and that he wished he didn’t wish to win as badly as he did. On Sunday, Scheffler wiped off tears on his manner up Quail Hole’s 18th fairway earlier than throwing his hat on the inexperienced in ecstasy and yelling moments after the ultimate putt dropped. He’s not only a two-time Masters winner however now, a three-time main champion at age 27, midway to the Grand Slam.
“Sometimes I wish I didn’t care as much as I did — or as I do,” Scheffler mentioned once more after his closing spherical. “It would be a lot easier if I could show up and be like, eh, win or lose, I’m still going to go home and do whatever. Sometimes I feel that way. But at the end of the day, this means a lot to me.”
“He wants to win every time he goes out here, regardless if it’s golf, pickleball, whatever it is, he wants to win,” Smith mentioned. “I keep equating it to other sports. You got the basketball guy, you always know who it is on a team, who wants the ball with one second left, and that’s the way he is.”
If McIlroy’s emotional win on the Masters this 12 months was the tip of 1 storyline, then Scheffler’s victory at Quail Hole was a well timed reminder of the one which solely grows stronger. McIlroy is perhaps having the very best 12 months within the sport, however the title of greatest participant on the earth nonetheless belongs to Scheffler.
