Scottie Scheffler eases to four-shot win in The Open

The National

5 days ago

Whatever you want to call it, Scottie Scheffler produced it here at Royal Portrush to win the 153rd Open in a quite emphatic fashion.
It was never in doubt really. When the world No 1 extended his healthy overnight lead to five shots after just two holes of the final round, the fat lady was packing up her microphone, flinging her crumpled song-sheet into the bin and heading off to find another gig.
Garry Harvey, the Scot who chisels the champion's name onto golf's most cherished clump of silverware, was probably on a Stena Line ferry back across the water by the time Scheffler got through the fifth. Job done.
Even the rare stumble of a double-bogey on the eighth – he had to give the rest something to cling to, didn't he? – was no great cause for concern. Normal service was swiftly resumed.
In typical Scheffler fashion, he bounced back with purposeful aplomb and birdied the very next hole. You half expected the R&A high heid yins to wheel a trestle table out to the ninth green and do the prize giving ceremony there.
In the end, the unflappable, relentless 29-year-old signed off with a three-under 68 - his fourth sub-70 round of the week – for a 17-under aggregate of 267 and won by four shots from his American compatriot, Harris English.
To be truthful, the margin of victory felt like it should've been greater, such was Scheffler's majesty and his magnificent front-running.
At one stage early on in the final round, he had extended his advantage to a whopping eight shots. In fact, he was so far ahead of the rest, he may as well have been playing in the 154th Open at Royal Birkdale.
As Scheffler ambled off into the distance at the top of the leaderboard, the golf writers were eagerly leafing through the record books and wondering if he would beat the 13-shot winning record set by Old Tom Morris at Prestwick way back in 1862.
From just 24 major starts as a professional, Scheffler has four major titles on his cv.
With two Masters green jackets, a US PGA crown and now The Open, he's already three-quarters of the way to the career grand slam. It's a remarkable career.
In the eyes of Xander Schauffele, the defending Open champion who shared seventh with Rory McIlroy and Oban's Robert MacIntyre, Scheffler is the king of all he surveys.
'I don't think we thought the golfing world would see someone as dominant as Tiger (Woods) come through so soon, and here's Scottie sort of taking that throne of dominance,' said Schauffele of a man who has racked up 14 wins in his last 38 events.
The praise and plaudits may be tumbling forth, but Scheffler himself is not a fan of comparisons with the 15-time major winner Woods.
'I still think they're a bit silly,' said the new champion, who is only the second world No 1 after Woods to win The Open.
'Tiger won, what, 15 majors? This is my fourth. I think Tiger stands alone in the game of golf. He was inspirational for me growing up. But I don't focus on that kind of stuff."
In his pre-championship press conference earlier in the week, Scheffler delved deep into the pointlessness of golf in the grand scheme of life.
'Why do I want to win The Open Championship so badly?,' he said during an existential examination. 'I don't know because, if I win, it's going to be awesome for two minutes.'
Surely this was awesome for more than 120 seconds? 'At the end of the day, there's more to life than playing golf,' said Scheffler whose faith and his family remain his driving forces.
'I'm pretty excited to go home and celebrate this one. But we're going to start all over in Memphis (his next event), and we're all back to even-par. The show goes on.'
Take Scheffler out of the equation and this would've been a thrilling Open Sunday show as the rest jockeyed for position on a bunched up leaderboard.
The charging Bryson DeChambeau certainly generated a buzz with a terrific seven-under 64 to barge into a tie for 10th.
As salvage operations go, this was up there with the raising of the Mary Rose.
After the wreck of his first round 78 on Thursday, it looked like the American would sink without trace. By Sunday afternoon, the former US Open champion was shipshape and Bristol fashion.
Hats off to him. The 31-year-old basically gave Scheffler a 10-shot head-start after that opening day of toil and trouble.
DeChambeau was 16-under for his next 54-holes, the second lowest three-round tally in Open history. It would've done well at a LIV event, eh?
McIlroy, six shots behind Scheffler heading into the closing round, had spent the evening before watching 'Oppenheimer', the film about the fellow who oversaw the development of the nuclear bomb.
He was probably thinking that an atomic strike was the only way to stop Scheffler.
McIlroy, urged on by a huge home support, couldn't conjure the fireworks the galleries craved and his 69, which featured a deflating double-bogey on the 10th, left him seven shots behind the winner.
'I know I wasn't the fan favourite today,' said Scheffler with a smile as he snuffed out hopes of a McIlroy fairytale with another ruthless display.
English, who was also second to Scheffler in this year's PGA Championship, closed with a 66 to take another runners-up spot while Chris Gotterup, fresh from his Scottish Open win a week earlier, completed a brilliant Open debut with a 67 and finished third.
Wyndham Clark's 65 vaulted him into a share of fourth with Matthew Fitzpatrick and Haotong Li. Like everybody else, though, they were footnotes in the Scheffler success story.
'Scottie's in a league of his own right now,' said the aforementioned DeChambeau.
'I played with him a lot in college, and he was not that good, so he's figured out a lot of stuff since then.'
He certainly has.