Nobody caught Scotty Sheffler on Sunday.
Scheffler scored an absolutely dominant five-shot win. Players Championship on the Sunday following the TPC Sawgrass break to qualify for the PGA Tour Main Event. It was the sixth win of his career and he once again passed John Rahm for first place in the Official World Golf Rankings.
[Free bracket contests for both tourneys | Printable Men’s | Women’s]
Scheffler became the third golfer in history to hold both The Players and Masters Championships, joining Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
Starting with a two-shot lead, Scheffler took his time Sunday morning. He even scared his third hole of the day, which left the door open. And yet, on the eighth, Scheffler completely took off.
Scheffler threw in a birdie on a par-3 while standing in a green bunker. This set off a wild streak of five birdies in a row, which increased his lead to six shots at his peak.
By that time, Scheffler had just arrived at the finish line. He par five and bogey his last six holes of the day to show in the final round of 69.
Scheffler extended his lead on an incredibly long Saturday. Scheffler had to finish eight holes on Saturday morning to complete his second round, which was stopped early due to rain. He then went 7 under in his third round to get to 14 under for the week, giving him a two-stroke lead over Min Woo Lee after playing 26 holes on the day.
While others were close, no other top 10 in the world was within seven shots of him. This opened up an opportunity for Scheffler to overtake Ram, who withdrew on Friday due to illness, to take first place in the OWGR.
“I would rather win the tournament than go back to number one in the world,” Scheffler said after Saturday. “So tomorrow I’ll focus on just going out and playing a round of golf.”
That is exactly what he did. Luckily for Scheffler, the win also came with a $4.5 million check and a return to number one.
Lee, having made a birdie on his first hole, tripled his fourth, hitting the water. This set him back three throws and his chances of winning his first Tour of his career were ruined. He finished with a score of 4 out of 76 which dropped him to T6. Tyrrell Hatton finished second after posting 7-65, the best round of the day and taking him 24 pots up the leaderboard. Viktor Hovland and Tom Hoge finished third in the U10 rankings.
Scheffler has won six times in his career, all in his last 27 starts. He’s already won twice this season, the first time at the Waste Management Phoenix Open last month. The win put him back in first place in OWGR, although Ram passed him at The Genesis Invitational the following week. In his 10 starts this season, Scheffler has only finished worse than the T12 once.
Source: sports.yahoo.com
