Gamers 2024: Simply because it appeared Scottie Scheffler was mortal, he proves to be higher than we even realized

PGA Tour gamers who take one monitor towards profitable golf tournaments are troublesome to beat. Those that can win in a number of methods have lengthy careers, compile loads of wins and contend for a number of main championships.

After which there’s Scottie Scheffler, who appears to have the ability to win skilled golf tournaments in any conceivable method.

Scheffler on Sunday turned the first golfer to efficiently defend at The Gamers Championship whereas profitable his second straight PGA Tour occasion. He shot a 64 for the ages, shifting to twenty below and topping Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman and Xander Schauffele by a single stroke shot every. 

Scheffler has made $8.5 million over the past two weeks and $9 million at this match alone over the past two seasons. He has dominated the final fortnight.

If a golfer performed each spherical ultimately week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational and this week’s Gamers Championship to discipline common, he could be -2 after two weeks and 144 holes. 

Scheffler was 35 below.

He flushed every part he checked out Sunday, ending first within the discipline in strokes gained tee to inexperienced for the fourth time in 5 absolutely measured occasions this yr. He holed out from 82 yards for eagle on the entrance 9. He gave himself six birdie seems from 12 toes and nearer on the again 9. I watched all of them, and I do not assume he missed a single shot as he thundered house.

Final week, the discuss was that Scheffler discovered a putter; that progress continued this week. He seemed much less stiff and extra athletic on each quick and lengthy putts. This week, although, was in regards to the ball-striking. For the second Gamers in a row, he completed outdoors the highest 30 in placing. For the second Gamers in a row, match officers handed him a trophy. 

That’s terrifying.

Much more terrifying is that Scheffler inadvertently disclosed yet one more method he can win big-time match golf this week at TPC Sawgrass. The abilities are apparent; we already knew about them. You consider them on statistically, in case you want. Scheffler is traditionally good, most likely the most effective striker of the golf ball for a sustained time frame since Tiger Woods.

However nice ball-striking shouldn’t be the lone trait that gained him this golf match. Paths to victory are sometimes extra obsequious than that, much less linear than the numbers make them appear. 

On Friday morning, Scheffler almost needed to withdraw from The Gamers. His neck locked up, and he out of the blue struggled to even flip his head to learn putts. It was, as he recounted, “fairly painful.” He had the kind of crick in his neck that, when you have by no means skilled it, makes it really feel such as you’ll by no means be capable to look to the facet once more with out shifting your whole physique. 

Scheffler acquired remedy whereas sitting in a garden chair behind the 14th gap. 

This man went on to win the occasion!

Scheffler clearly did not have his finest stuff on Friday or Saturday. His driving distance dropped, and so did his ball pace. His footwork went from “he dances in every single place” to “he could be performing interpretive ballet.” He was clearly defending himself from the ache his harm was inflicting.

However Scheffler fought onward, capturing his twenty fourth consecutive spherical below par on Friday and his twenty fifth on Saturday. That put him at the very least inside putting distance of the lead going into the ultimate spherical Sunday. 

And whereas he completed first within the discipline once more in each ball-striking and strokes gained from tee to inexperienced, Scheffler gained this match with one thing he has not but had wanted to make the most of: guts. He gained as a result of he is robust and aggressive and values being robust and aggressive greater than regardless of the knowledge says about his method play. He stayed disciplined and saved the noise round him down at the same time as he dialed up his hitting as soon as once more.

Scheffler gained as a result of he is gritty.

It is an annoying phrase that will get tossed round so ubiquitously that it barely means a lot anymore. It is typically used to explain gamers with little ability performing past their perceived capabilities. Usually that is simply luck, although.

This from Scheffler was precise grit, one thing he dug round and located. One thing that allowed him to play to the extent he is been taking part in at for a lot of the final two years.

“I am a fairly aggressive man, and I did not wish to quit within the match,” Scheffler stated Sunday. “I did what I may to hold round till my neck bought higher. Immediately, it felt actually good.”

“[Thinking I could win was] most likely why I saved taking part in,” he added. “I had gotten off to an excellent begin. … I performed actually good golf on Thursday. I made an early birdie. I feel I used to be 2 below by means of 4 on Friday, so I used to be proper within the thick of the match. Abruptly, I get that pinch in my neck, and I gutted it out round there, getting it round in a couple of below par, protecting myself within the match. Similar factor Saturday.”

This was Scheffler’s ninth win in his final 51 begins worldwide, most of them monsters. He is made almost $50 million in these 51 tournaments alone with 22 high 3s in that point.

You possibly can’t do any of that if you do not have the presents. However to have this within the arsenal, too? The doggedness to determine learn how to not simply stave off a withdrawal however preserve oneself in rivalry whereas feeling horrible — figuring out it might be straightforward to pack up the $4 million you gained final week and head house?

That is a humiliation of riches.

It jogged my memory of a wierd comparability I have been eager about relating to Scheffler. His demeanor and disposition remind of Roger Federer. Scheffler would not share Federer’s magnificence nor his eloquence, however beneath all of the stoicism, it is typically the blokes who hardly say a phrase throughout competitors which have probably the most occurring.

“I take it as an enormous praise [that I was considered effortless],” Federer stated just lately about his profession. “After I was taking part in, I used to be struggling a bit of bit extra with it as a result of I really feel like then they might not see the fighter and the winner I hopefully was. As a result of in case you’re not a fighter, in case you can’t put in effort — you can not obtain what I achieved with simply being easy. If you’ve labored unbelievably laborious, solely then are you able to make it look easy. So, I at all times struggled — particularly early on — with the thought, ‘Effectively, do they not see the eagerness and battle and every part I put into it?'”

That sounds rather a lot like Scheffler. In truth, Scheffler stated one thing comparable in his press convention final week on the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

“I want to be remembered as a competitor. I want to be remembered as somebody that at all times gave it his finest and simply saved an excellent perspective. I really feel like that is my purpose at all times going into an occasion is being robust, being aggressive and going out and competing, having an excellent perspective and being dedicated to my photographs.”

This can be a drawback for everyone else on the PGA Tour and in main championship fields.

Not solely has Scheffler confirmed he can win off the tee and along with his method play. Not solely does he execute among the finest course administration on this planet — like he did in his win at The Gamers final yr. Not solely has he seemingly turned his placing round to match what was already one of many nice quick video games on this planet. 

However now all people else is aware of — in the event that they weren’t conscious earlier than — that Scheffler goes to take them to the mat, even when unwell or injured. He isn’t about to lean on his extraordinary presents and easily his clear thoughts. He will be an even bigger canine than the remainder of the sector, too.

Scheffler is the best on this planet by a large margin, but he could be even higher than we realized.