50th Players brings some much-needed greatness for PGA Tour
PONTE VEDRA BEACH — The week of the 50th Players Championship began with a flap but ended with a flourish.
Scottie Scheffler’s dramatic and historic 1-shot come-frombehind win was the show-stopping performance the PGA Tour needed on its biggest stage.
Scheffler’s relentless execution and closing ability drew Tiger Woods comparisons as he maintained his stranglehold on world No. 1 at the expense of the reigning U.S. Open champion (Wyndham Clark), British Open champ (Brian Harman) and Olympic gold medalist (Xander Schauffele).
Yet Scheffler didn’t have the opportunity to chase down, defeat and demoralize all of golf ’s top players.
LIV Golf continued to intrude at TPC Sawgrass, even if the absence of world No. 2 Jon Rahm, five-time major champion Brooks Koepka and five former Players champions, including 2022 winner Cam Smith, took nothing away from Scheffler’s transcendent performance.
During his annual address Tuesday, commissioner Jay Monahan highlighted the Tour’s multi-billion dollar agreement with the Strategic Sports Group, aimed to combat the Saudi-funded rival league. Reporter queries followed, as did player reaction.
Schauffele said Monahan had “a long way to go to gain the trust of the membership,” potentially setting the stage for an uncomfortable champion’s ceremony when Schauffele held the 54-hole lead.
Scheffler, not known to share public opinions, blamed LIV defectors for less buzz about the Tour’s showcase event.
“If the fans are upset, then look at the guys that left,” he said.
But by the time Scheffler hoisted the trophy Sunday evening, golf was in a better place.
The world’s No. 1 player matched the lowest finalround score by a winner with an 8-under-par 64 to erase a 5-shot deficit, equaling the tournament’s biggest comeback during 41 years at TPC Sawgrass.
The 27-year-old summoned his best stuff after three days of battling a neck injury and watching three players ranked inside the top 10 leave him behind.
But on the Players’ golden anniversary, forces came together to produce a final round as riveting and emotionally exhausting as any in tournament history.
‘Today was another battle, hard-fought week,” the understated Scheffler said. “A lot of guys played some really good golf this week.”
Harman, Schauffele and then Clark had a chance to tie Scheffler with a birdie on the par-4 18th hole. Clark’s ball even fell halfway into the cup before horse-shoeing out to end his bid in agonizing fashion, especially given he held a 4-shot lead after 36 holes.
Each would have been a worthy world-class winner.
In golf, though, dominance generates mass appeal like few sports.
Coming off a 5-shot win during the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Orlando’s Bay Hill, Scheffler fit the bill. He led the Players field in strokes gained tee-togreen and off-the-tee, along with driving accuracy at TPC Sawgrass. He tied for third in greens in regulation.
The rare time he made a mistake, his brilliant short game saved him. A putter change prior to the API seems to have filled the one hole in his game.
Even when Scheffler struggled before winning at Bay Hill, he recorded 14 top-10s in 19 starts between wins.
Now with consecutive wins for the first time since his dominant spring in 2022, tougher tests await.
The April 11-14 Masters will feature 2023 winner Rahm, Koepka and threetime champion Phil Mickelson, who tied for second in 2023, along with 2018 winner Patrick Reed, who tied for fourth. Augusta National Golf Club also is unlikely to yield the low scoring encouraged by soft conditions at TPC Sawgrass.
Either way, 2022 Masters champion Scheffler will be the man to beat. But even if he fails, he helped the PGA Tour deliver a major win Sunday.