Scottie Scheffler started his final round of the 50th Players Championship five shots behind Xander Schauffele, but the deficit did not phase him.
Scottie Scheffler makes Players Championship history with miracle comeback win
Scheffler’s 64 Sunday was tied for lowest ever winning score at The Players with an unbelievably dramatic finish.
Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
Jack Milko has been playing golf since he was five years old. He has yet to record a hole-in-one, but he did secure an M.A. in Sports Journalism from St. Bonaventure University.
Neither did his neck pain that bothered him earlier in the week.
Instead, he rattled off one of the best rounds of his career, shooting an 8-under 64 to become the first player to win The Players Championship in consecutive years.
“It’s pretty special. That’s something you never really get the opportunity to do very often,” Scheffler said after the win.
“It’s tough enough to win one Players, so to have it back-to-back is extremely special, and yeah, really thankful.”
In doing so, Scheffler tied the lowest score shot by a Players champion, as this year’s final round at TPC Sawgrass did not disappoint. Fred Couples shot 64 when he won in 1996, and Davis Love III carded this elusive score in 2003.
Funny enough, both Couples and Love have also won this championship twice, and now Scheffler becomes the seventh player to do so.
The drama began early and often on Sunday, with Scheffler making a hole-out eagle at the par-4 4th to jump-start his round and vault him into contention. That 92-yard wedge got him to 14-under for the championship.
Then, Scheffler made three more birdies on the front nine, and by the time he turned to the back side, he held a share of the lead at 17-under.
His birdie barrage did not end there, as Scheffler made a nice par-breaker at the par-5 11th.
But one of the best shots of the week came at the par-4 12th, where the 2022 Masters champion drove the green, setting himself up for a terrific look at eagle.
Although he missed that opportunity, Scheffler still made birdie, and by then, he was 19-under for the tournament and squarely in the mix.
The Texan kept the pedal to the medal on the par-3 13th, sticking his approach to five feet. But Scheffler missed the short birdie putt—an uncharacteristic miss this week.
“On 11, it was the first time I really looked at a leaderboard, and I kind of chuckled, and I said, yeah, of course,” said Wyndham Clark, who ultimately finished one stroke behind Scheffler.
“I mean, he’s the best player in the world.”
Scheffler continued to decimate TPC Sawgrass from tee to green, making easy pars on the challenging 14th and tricky 15th.
He made birdie at the easy par-5 16th, which proved as his last of the day, and was able to safely find the green at the famous par-3 17th.
“He’s the best player in the world, and this is a championship golf course,” said Brian Harman, who like Clark, finished in a tie for second at 19-under.
“If you look at it on paper, the best player this week won. That’s kind of what you want in a golf tournament. We all had our chances, and he just performed and out-executed two or three more times than the rest of us.”
Scheffler closed out his round with a tap-in par on 18—the most challenging hole at TPC Sawgrass all week—and he almost made birdie there too.
But so, too, did Clark, as his birdie attempt on 18 just lipped out. If that putt dropped, Clark and Scheffler would have played a three-hole aggregate playoff.
Instead, Clark’s miss left Scheffler as the first back-to-back champion in Players history, further solidifying his position as the best golfer on the planet.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
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