It’s not that Scottie Scheffler always plays great golf. But he never seems to fail to play good golf. Or very timely good golf.
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Coming off a bogey at 10 and faced with a 14-foot birdie putt at the par-five 11th hole at Muirfield Village Golf Club after a few uncharacteristic loose swings, Scheffler did the kind of Scheffler thing that defines why he reigns over golf as No. 1 in the world. His closest pursuer Ben Griffin was less than five feet away for a potential tying birdie. Sweaty palms time.
Scheffler drilled that son of a gun in the heart of the cup.
It was cold. It was ruthless. It was, well, exactly what you might expect.
“Yeah, definitely an important moment in the tournament,” Scheffler said. “Because after the bogey on 10, making that putt on 11 was really important to kind of keep him at bay. It was definitely where I took control of the tournament.”
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Darn right it was.
Having brashly reminded everyone Saturday night that he had beaten the Texas native the week before at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Griffin looked stunned. He missed his putt from short range. Then he bogeyed 12 and 13, and Scheffler’s two-shot lead had very quickly ballooned to four and there wasn’t anything more for Griffin or anyone else to say.
Except congratulations. Again.
With a slightly imperfect but largely perfunctory two-under 70, Scheffler successfully defended his title in the Memorial Tournament Sunday with a four-stroke victory over Griffin. Four sub-par rounds added to 10-under 278 and the ninth straight time he has converted a 54-hole outright lead to a victory.
In the 50th edition of the Memorial, Scheffler joined five-time winner Tiger Woods as the only players to win Jack Nicklaus’ tournament in back-to-back years. Scheffler pocketed $US4 million for his third win of the year—all in his last four starts—and 16th career victory on the PGA Tour. In his last four appearances at Muirfield Village, Scheffler has finished first twice and third twice. That means four guys have beaten him.
He’ll be a heavy favourite at the US Open at Oakmont, but that’s like saying that tomorrow is another day. There’s an inevitability to Scheffler, the product of a game that seems similar to the man who was sitting beside him at the winner’s press conference. A guy by the game of Nicklaus.
It’s actually a simple combination of excellence and intelligence.
“Scottie, he didn’t play, for him, spectacular golf. He played what he should do,” said the Golden Bear. “He played good, solid, smart golf and, you know, three 70s and a 68, that’s pretty good golf under the conditions that were out there. That’s what the best player in the world does. He comes out and does things the right way and manages it.”
Scheffler, 28, didn’t need to be spectacular. He just needed to be Scheffler.
Perhaps the most remarkable golf Sunday was turned in by sponsor exemption recipient Brandt Snedeker, who shot 65 with nine birdies and a double bogey—his best score in 26 rounds at Muirfield Village by four shots. At one-under 287, tied for seventh, Snedeker nearly earned the lone exemption to the 153rd Open at Royal Portrush available to the highest finisher not otherwise eligible. But that spot went to Rickie Fowler, who got up and down from the right rough for par at 18 to salvage 73 and equal Snedeker’s 287. Fowler won the tiebreaker by virtue of his higher world ranking of 124 compared to 430 for Snedeker.
Scheffler didn’t shoot lower than 68 at Muirfield Village, which was a stingy menace with its ball-gobbling rough, but he remained the maddeningly consistent ball-striker that separates him from the crowd. He suffered one bogey over his final 40 holes, that coming on the par-four 10th that gave a glimmer of an opening to Griffin, who began the final round one back.
Then Scheffler threw his haymaker, getting up and down from a gnarly lie for the birdie that propelled him forward.
“Yeah, that was a big moment for him,” Griffin said. “I had just gotten one back on 10, and so I was within a shot, and then those next couple holes … those three holes in a row where I lost a shot to him on every hole was tough.”
It was the ballgame.
Griffin, 29, has two wins and a runner-up finish in his last five starts but took little solace from his latest effort. Going up against Scheffler required better form than he displayed on Sunday because he knows what Scheffler is going to bring to the table. Dyspepsia is the result for the competition.
“I try not to think too much about what he was necessarily doing. It’s easy to assume what he’s going to do,” Griffin said. “You know he’s going to hit fairways, you know he’s going to hit greens, he’s not really going to make mistakes.”
“You know [that] Scottie’s probably going to play a good round of golf. The guy’s relentless,” said Sepp Straka, a two-time winner this year who finished third at 283 after a 70. “He loves competition, and he doesn’t like giving up shots.”
Scheffler couldn’t say that he has any kind of killer instinct. He struggled to answer a question about his dominance. “I never think about dominating,” he said with a touch of annoyance. “I don’t … it’s a waste of time for me to think about that kind of stuff. I’m just trying to be the best that I can be and work hard and use the gifts that I have for good and that’s pretty much it.”
In that regard, he’s doing a fine job.
No less than Nicklaus is beyond impressed. And didn’t mind saying so with the ultimate compliment.
“He reminds me so much of the way I like to play,” Nicklaus said. “I don’t think I played nearly as well as he played. He’s playing better than I played and more consistent. He’s just been playing fantastic, and I love watching him play. Whether it’s here or on the television or whatever it is, I love to watch. Anytime he’s playing, I want to watch.”
