2023 Players Championship: Min Woo Lee, Tommy Fleetwood among 7 golfers to catch up with Scottie Scheffler

Let’s be honest: The Player Championship is over. Scottie Scheffler hit 65 points with a birdie last Saturday to go under 14 and lead Min Woo Lee by two and lead Cam Davis by four. It most likely sealed the deal on Scheffler’s sixth win in 97 his first start on the PGA Tour.

Scheffler is a monster that attacks the ball. He’s losing hits on these greens and still lead the group of the best golfers in the sport. That’s partly because he serves long and steady, partly because he’s a good iron and partly because he’s managing TPC Sawgrass well.

With Sunday’s win, Scheffler will join Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only golfers to simultaneously hold the Masters and Player Championship titles. It’s an extraordinary company, and it underscores what Scheffler has been up to over the past 15 months. He and Jon Rahm have been the best players in the world during that time, but Scheffler has far surpassed everyone at the biggest events.

Scheffler has some good players behind him, and it’s perfectly possible for him to hit 73 or worse and lose to someone who is leading the charts in the last 18 holes. But the possibility that it is at best is questionable. Scheffler has reached the final round of a PGA Tour event five times in his career. He has two wins, one playoff loss, and two outright losses.

So OK, it might not be via …but it’s probably locked. Otherwise, here are seven golfers who can catch Scheffler on Sunday.

1. Min Woo Lee (-12): I fully support Lee, to whom Aaron Rai (years after Scheffler) said the following: “He’s a great, great player. The attitude is great too, which I think is just as powerful as the game. He doesn’t have a weakness. I think he’s going to be a star here on the PGA Tour in the years to come.” Lee is a threat that won’t hesitate to take on Scheffler in the final match. But he’s not hitting as well as Scheffler and is really losing shots on the court with his steely play. He wrote “had a great week but won’t have a battery to run out of Scheffler” on him, but if you’re interested in some stocks, I bought a ton later he sent this tweet last year.

2. Cam Davis (-10): Davis is a low-key player who is hitting the golf course this week and scoring 67 on Saturday. Is he ready to come back from 4th to world No 2 to win the Player award? He has the skill to do so, but Sunday will be a 300 class from Scheffler on how to end a golf tournament. He’ll have to navigate that in a place he’s never experienced before, which will be thrilling to watch.

3. Tommy Fleetwood (-9): Fleetwood was near perfect on Saturday with a 65. He’s third on the field from tee to green across three rounds, and this is one of the better points he’s had to claim the win. featured at TPC Sawgrass. He had an incentive to go after Scheffler as long as Scheffler didn’t shoot something in the 60s, but Fleetwood sometimes struggled to land bold wins.

According to Data Golf, Fleetwood’s expected win rate has dropped in all of the last rounds he’s made the top five (where he’ll feature this Sunday). However, the possibility is there. It’s just a matter of resting a few times and taking a big finishing kick.

Fleetwood said after his round of how difficult it is to win the Tournament: “I’ve noticed the standard has improved over the last two, three, four years. Players are getting better and the players are getting better. The special course doesn’t get easier, but the standard is getting higher and higher, and you have to be really, really good these days. In this field, anyone can come out and win, which happens all the time, but I just have to think more of it.”

4. Sungjae Im (-8): I didn’t know that Im, who is six points behind Scheffler, was really in contention here, but this week he hit the ball really well. If anyone but the under 9 players has a shot, it could be him.

5. Tom Hoge (-8): Why not us?! Hoge cut the numbers before hitting the field and scored the course record on Saturday in Round 3. It could take other Sunday’s course record to beat Scheffler, but there’s no doubt Hoge will get there.

6. Aaron Rai (-9): The British tennis player has not been in the top 10 since the Houston Open last fall. He’ll go into Sunday’s final with perhaps more momentum than anyone after finishing the third round with a birdie-eagle-birdie (that eagle was the trump card on the 17th), but I don’t think he has the firepower to roll with Scheffler, Davis, Fleetwood and Lee in the last 18 holes.

7. David Lingmerth (-8): Lingmerth is extremely easy to root, even as he wore the ugliest outfit in golf history when he finished T2 against Woods at the 2013 Players Championship. Good news? He’s the third-best iron in the field on an extremely demanding golf course. He is second only to Scheffler and Collin Morikawa. Lingmerth is unlikely to win, but don’t be surprised if he makes it to the top three.