SThanks to cottie Scheffler. With his dominance over the past two weeks, the 27-year-old American has pushed the dispute between the PGA Tour and the competition LIV Golf, which is financed by the Saudi Arabian Private Investment Fund (PIF), into the background. The professional from Dallas (Texas) impressively demonstrated for the second time in a row on Sunday at the Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach (Florida) that nobody is currently playing golf better.
With a brilliant final round of 64 shots, the world number one not only set the record for the last 18 holes in the world's most highly endowed individual tournament ($25 million, around 23 million euros in prize money) – a result that last led Davis Love III to victory in 2003 . Scheffler also managed to make up a five-shot deficit – another record previously achieved by Justin Leonard (1998).
But that's not all: Scheffler, who collected $4.5 million (4.13 million euros) for his eighth victory on the PGA Tour in the past 25 months, wrote a new chapter in golf history thanks to just 268 strokes (20 under par). . He managed to defend his title for the first time on the 50th anniversary of this traditional tournament. U
nd that, although he was so severely hampered by neck pain, especially on the second day, that his caddy Ted Scott had doubts whether his boss would continue to play on the weekend. “I'm a fighter and I didn't want to give up in the tournament. I did what I could to hold on until my neck got better. Today actually felt good. I went out and had a really good round of golf,” Scheffler said.
With the Kinesio tape on the neck
An understatement, because he had started his race to catch up spectacularly. With black Kinesio tape on his neck, he demonstrated why he is considered the best “ballstriker” in the world, the man who plays with more precision from tee to green than anyone else. The previous week, Scheffler fixed his hole-making problems by switching to a large-head mallet putter and won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando. Now he only needed 25 putts because he didn't have to use the new “flatstick” on one hole. On the fourth hole, a par 4, Scheffler sank his ball from 84 meters for an eagle, followed up with six more birdies and didn't have to concede a single bogey on the difficult championship course at TPC Sawgrass.
First with trophy: World number one Scottie Scheffler after victory in Ponte Vedra Beach
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Image: AFP
Such mishaps cost his compatriots Xander Schauffele, who went into the final round as the leader, as well as Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman, who were second and third after 54 holes, their chances of winning the title. Nevertheless, all three had the chance to draw level with Scheffler with a birdie on the final hole. But only the current US Open champion Clark came close to forcing a play-off. His putt from six meters dipped halfway into the hole and then popped out again. Clark (69 strokes), Schauffele (70) and Harman (68), the current British Open champion, shared second place, one stroke behind, with a total of 269 (19 under par) and received $1.98 million (almost 1.82 million euros).
The dispute with LIV Golf continues to smolder
This trio experienced that Scheffler is currently unstoppable. At the Arnold Palmer Invitational, one of the eight so-called “signature events” reserved for the elite of the PGA Tour, the Primus even left the competition far behind. Clark finished in second place, five shots behind. The fact that he overtook the leaders this time was further proof for Clark, fourth in the world rankings, that this man rightly leads the Official World Golf Ranking as number one – and has done so for a total of 79 weeks.
While Scheffler strengthened his top position, the Players Championship lost its reputation as the unofficial fifth major, at least for the time being, due to the absence of stars who had moved to LIV Golf, such as the Spanish Masters champion and world number three Jon Rahm. In advance, Northern Irish world number two Rory McIlroy, who only finished in 21st place, said: “It's the biggest tournament outside of the majors and you don't have all the best players in the world here. This is a pity.”
In an effort to change that, PGA Tour boss Jay Monahan claimed that negotiations toward an agreement with LIV Golf were progressing, but he did not provide details. Perhaps this is also why a number of the Players Directors (professionals who belong to the PGA Tour's supervisory board, ed.) allegedly wanted to meet on Monday with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the head of PIF and the main financier of LIV Golf. “A meeting like this would have been necessary months ago,” McIlroy said. The hope remains that players will solve what PGA Tour officials have so far failed to achieve: that the best in the world compete against each other in more than just the four majors.
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