Scheffler's masterpiece gives the Portrush crowds what they expected rather than what they wanted

The 42

20-07-2025

THE CROWDS DESCENDED hoping to witness the irresistible from Rory McIlroy but instead Scottie Scheffler gave them the inevitable.
The crowds racing behind Scheffler down the 18th fairway were neither as large nor jubilant as those chasing Shane Lowry six years ago, but it was no less a procession.
Minutes later, Scheffler took his 267th and final stroke to win the Open Championship and reacted by hardly reacting at all; shaking the hands of his playing partner and hugging caddie Ted Scott before he turned, raised his arms and then he tossed his cap and embraced his wife and child.
He returned a few minutes later to rattle through his victory speech, at one point checking his notes to remember to thank the town of Portrush, admitting he didn't see as much of it as he would have liked, given this was a business trip.
Prior to Scheffler's procession, Rory McIlroy gave one last salute to the raucous crowds, later saying he got everything he wanted from his week back home, aside from the Claret Jug. Those huddled together on the other side of the ropes shared the same sentiment.
McIlroy told the media last night he was unwinding between rounds by watching Oppenheimer, and was overheard today bending Harry Diamond's ear about some element of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Given it was McIlroy who last year suggested Scheffler should address his putting issues by switching to a mallet putter, perhaps he feels like Oppenheimer himself.
I have become death, destroyer of fields. . .
We always speculated about the extent to which Scheffler might dominate if he became a good putter, but this weekend he putted better than anyone else in the world. When Scheffler wobbled toward the end of his front nine today, he was saved solely by his putter. He won by four shots in the end, clear of Harris English, and gained almost two-and-a-half strokes with his putting alone.
Scheffler admitted in his victory speech he was not the crowd favourite this week, but you were surprised he thought to mention it, given how impervious he appeared to it all week.
Five hours earlier, McIlroy bounded down the first fairway to his customary fervour, with Scheffler following 10 minutes later.
Rory found the fairway, and then Scottie found the first cut of rough.
Though Rory could only make par, the crowds around him were looking at Scheffler's spot and conjuring up all manner of unconvincing hope.
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Scheffler then banished it all by leaving his second shot a foot from the hole. He then birdied four and five, but didn't even have the decency to slam the door. Instead he grabbed the handle and occasionally creaked it ajar, less in invitation than in taunt.
After he birdied the par-four fifth looking out at the coastal cliffs, Scheffler turned his back on the water and suddenly looked unsteady. He missed the green on the par-three sixth and then took a scenic route to the green on the par-five seventh, and yet he saved par twice with nerveless, 15-foot putts. He finally made a concession to the field on the eighth hole, taking two swipes to make it out of the bunker and finally missing a putt to make double-bogey, his first dropped shots since he played the 11th hole on Friday.
A shout of Yessss was heard from the crowd as Scheffler's putt drifted by, and certainly some of the the galleries' ardour for McIlroy spun off to a coolness-come-hostility to the leader.
McIlroy, though, quickly vacated himself from contention by taking his own double-bogey on 10. Instead the challenge was led by Chris Gotterup, fresh from winning last week's Scottish Open, who went out in three-under and got to within four of Scheffler.
Wyndham Clark meanwhile made a charge, blasting his way to alongside Gotterup at 11-under.
But they all needed Scheffler to capsize which was simply never going to happen. There has never been a better golfer at bouncing back from a dropped shot, and sure enough, Scheffler responded to his double with a birdie on the very next hole. Another birdie on the par-five 12th wiped the double clear.
McIlroy continued his toil, picking up a shot on 12 but seeing a short putt for birdie on 14 slide by the hole. He picked up one final shot on 15, but Rory would provide no hometown lore.
He played well for most of the four days, but Scheffler was simply far too good to handle.
Rory McIlroy waves to the crowds for one last time. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo
And while we recognise and celebrate sporting excellence, we are not always enthralled by it. In fact, the excellent aim to drain their art of all that might excite. But while the galleries around Royal Portrush were not given what they came for, they were given what they expected, and on these claustrophobic Masters Sundays, that's a stunning achievement by Scottie Scheffler.
Shane Lowry memorably described Scheffler's game as 'impressively unimpressive', and having played alongside him on Thursday and Friday, he expounded further today.
'If Scottie's feet stayed stable and his swing looked like Adam Scott's, we'd be talking about him in the same words as Tiger Woods', said Lowry. 'I just think because it doesn't look so perfect, we don't talk about him like that.'
Scottie doesn't thrill or magnetise like Tiger but he is ascending to his plane of greatness, and he will soon pass out all of his currently active peers as he does so. He may not be deeply fulfilled by this climb but that does not mean he will waver in it.
File Royal Portrush away as another Scottie Scheffler masterpiece.