Scottie Scheffler resembles peak Tiger Woods as Rory McIlroy and Co nowhere close with eerie stat ominous for his rivals

The Sun

6 days ago

THERE is, perhaps, one glimmer of hope for every other professional golfer on the planet.
And that is the possibility that Scottie Scheffler might once more encounter an overzealous traffic policeman and be led away from a Major championship in handcuffs.
6
6
6
Little else, it seems, will stop the man who cruised to the Claret Jug at Portrush.
Scheffler has now won 22 tournaments in three-and-a-half years and has finished inside the top ten at ten of the last 12 Majors, winning three of his last eight big ones.
That extraordinary run includes last year's PGA Championship at Valhalla, when Scheffler was arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer as well as 'third-degree criminal mischief' before his second round.
The world No1 had his wrists shackled in irons, was dressed in orange for a police mugshot and yet still returned to the course and finished the tournament in eighth.
Louisville's Department of Corrections eventually dropped all charges against Scheffler - a God-fearing Christian and a devoted family man with no other previous for any degree of mischief whatsoever.
Save for his ability to spoil people's weekends by turning golf tournaments into processions.
Scheffler is neither a charismatic man nor a thrilling golfer but he is incredibly, remorselessly good at this game - and his form over the past three years has resembled peak Tiger Woods.
Woods took 1,197 days to win his fourth Major after he'd clinched his first.
Scheffler did it in exactly the same timescale. Which sounds pretty damned ominous for everybody else.
Next year, the two-time Masters winner and reigning USPGA champion will turn up at Shinnecock Hills in New York state for the US Open, determined to complete a career Grand Slam.
Rory McIlroy, who became only the sixth man to win a Grand Slam at Augusta in April, played pretty well at Portrush - especially during his 66 on Saturday - and yet the world No2 could never even lay a glove on the world No1, finishing seven shots back.
There had been an inevitability about Scheffler since he started sharking his way up the leaderboard as a late starter on Friday, as menacing as a dorsal fin in a paddling pool.
Between the 11th hole on Friday and the eighth on Sunday afternoon, Scheffler played 32 holes without dropping a single shot.
Seven strokes clear of the field after seven holes of his final round, the Texan then took two attempts to escape from a fairway bunker and double-bogeyed.
For a few feverish minutes, it felt as if there might be an outside chance of something genuinely interesting happening - especially as last week's Scottish Open champion Chris Gotterup had just carded a birdie to bring him within four of the lead.
But ever since he won his first pro tournament in February 2022, Scheffler has proved he is no choker.
He birdied the ninth and the procession continued. They might as well have carried him shoulder-high around these Dunluce links in a sedan chair.
Leading by four heading into the final round, Scheffler drove left into the rough on the opening hole but, using his wedge like some kind of a wand, he landed the ball 16 inches from the hole.
Around the first green there was barely a ripple of applause.
None of them were close... this fella Scheffler is simply too damned good
Perhaps they were all supreme optimists still believing in the possibility of a McIlroy miracle or perhaps they have seen enough of Scheffler to simply imagine that this kind of thing was somehow normal.
After tapping in for birdie, Scheffler continued on his serene way, save for his scrape in the sandpit at eight.
As soon as he had smoked his tee shot up the fourth fairway, one of Scheffler's fellow Americans yelled out "what's the point, Scoddie?"
It referenced the philosophical pre-tournament press conference during which Scheffler had openly pondered the meaning of his existence, given the transient nature of his joy at winning tournaments.
It had felt like the late voice of darts, Sid Waddell, evoking Alexander the Great shedding tears of salt because, by the age of 33, he had no more worlds to conquer. Scheffler is only 29.
This turned out to be a 26th American triumph in the last 34 Majors and an 18th in the last 30 Opens.
These Yanks, they come over here, complain about our weather, try to convince us that our conditions are alien to them, and then they carry off our Claret Jug, time after time after time.
This ended up as an American one-two-three with Harris English four strokes behind Scheffler on 13-under and one ahead of Gotterup.
Matt Fitzpatrick - the last man to lead this tournament before Scheffler seized the lead on Friday evening - was tied for fourth place with another American, Wyndham Clark, and China's Haotong Li.
But, in truth, none of them were close. This fella Scheffler is simply too damned good.
They'd better call up Officer Dibble.
6
6
6