Bhatia, Rai finish in Top-35 as Scheffler re-writes records to win maiden Open
The 23-year-old shot a final round with a 2-under 69 that had four birdies against two bogeys. His rounds of 73-68-70-69 saw him total 4-under for the week.
The Indo-British Aaron Rai, who was among the leaders after nine holes on the first day, ended tied 34th and showed consistency in making all four cuts at the Majors this year. It was his seventh straight cut in a Major and his third cut in four starts at the Open.
Rai finished with 2-under 69 and his rounds of 69-72-71-69 saw him total 3-under.
Meanwhile, American Scottie Scheffler completed a dominant week with a final round 3-under 68 to win The Open. It was Scheffler's fourth career major championship and second this year.
He now has at least one each of three of the four — the one missing being the US Open — where he was tied 7th this year and has four Top-10s, including a runner-up in last five years.
Scheffler's dominance at the Majors is so stark. In 20 Majors since the beginning of 2020, he has missed one, won four, been in Top-10 16 times, missed just one cut and been outside Top-25 only once.
The Open was not played in 2020 and he did not play the US Open that year.
The world No. 1 and FedExCup leader picked up his 17th PGA TOUR win in his 146th start at the age of 29 and retained the No. 1 spot in the FedExCup rankings.
He has finished inside the top 25 in all 16 starts this season, with a season-high 13 top-10 finishes, including 11 straight.
Scheffler became the 12th consecutive first-time Open Championship winner; Ernie Els in 2012 being the most recent multiple winner. His rounds of 68-64-67-68 made him the seventh Open Championship winner to record four rounds in the 60s and the first since Collin Morikawa in 2021.
He become the first player during the modern major championship era to win his first four majors by three or more strokes: 2022 Masters (3), 2024 Masters (4), 2025 PGA Championship (5), 2025 Open Championship (4).
His 17-under 267 also bettered his personal-best 72-hole score in a major championship and he is the only player with top-10s in all four majors of 2025 (4th/Masters Tournament, 1st/PGA Championship, T7/U.S. Open, 1st/The Open Championship).
However, any talk of comparisons with Tiger Woods was dismissed by Scheffler himself.
'I don't focus on that kind of stuff," Scheffler said.
'That's not what motivates me." But his peers continue to be wowed by him.
Rory McIlroy said, 'In a historical context, you could argue that there's only maybe two or three players in the history of the game that have been on a run, the one that Scottie's been on here for the last 24 to 36 months. Incredibly impressive." First-round co-leader Harris English finished runner-up in two of the last three major championships this season, both to Scheffler at the PGA Championship and The Open Championship.
The 2025 Genesis Scottish Open champion Chris Gotterup finished third .
With scores of 76-66-66-65, 2023 U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark (T4) picked up his second top-10 finish in 16 major championship starts In his sixth appearance at The Open Championship, Haotong Li finished T4; a third-place finish in his debut appearance at the 2017 Open Championship remains his best result on the PGA TOUR by a player from China.
The 2025 Masters Tournament champion and world No. 2 Rory McIlroy finished T7.
Xander Schauffele ended T7 in title defense and has not finished lower than T28 (2025 PGA Championship) in 15 consecutive major championships, dating to a T-13 at the 2022 PGA Championship. He now has 26 top-20 finishes in 34 major championship starts. PTI Cor AH AH
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July 21, 2025, 15:15 IST
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