It must have been a strange experience to win nearly $6 million after four days of golf and walk away feeling nothing but disappointment. That’s the position Scottie Scheffler found Sunday after he shot 73 to take a six-shot lead in the final round of the PGA Tour season, opening the door for Rory McIlroy to overtake and win both. Tour Championship 2022 and FedEx $18 million. Grand Prize Cup.
Scheffler sucks on the last day; There’s no other way to say it. He finished 28th out of 29 strokes from tee to green. Only one golfer hit fewer specified greens than Scheffler’s nine. No one on the field shot worse than his 3-point finish at East Lake Golf Club. In 10 rounds of this year’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, 73 is Scheffler’s worst score – with two strokes.
“For whatever reason, my shot was nowhere in the first few days of this week,” Scheffler said. “…I’ve put myself in a position to win this tournament when I wasn’t playing my best today, and so I’m proud of how I fought.”
While the world No 1 couldn’t get past his four-win season with a FedEx Cup title – as Jordan Spieth did in 2015 or Justin Thomas did in 2017 – it doesn’t erase or even diminish. his performance over the past 12 months. Here is a brief summary of Scheffler’s play. It’s important to remember that this is a golfer who, at this point last year, has not broken into the world top 10 nor won a PGA Tour tournament.
- Ryder Cup: Beat Jon Rahm in singles
- Phoenix Open: Beat Patrick Cantlay (Win 1)
- Arnold Palmer Invitational: Defeat Viktor Hovalnd, the others (Won 2)
- WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play: Third win in seven weeks (Win 3)
- OWGR: Became #1 after winning WGC, reigned for 23 weeks (and counting)
- Master: First major championship, fourth win in nine weeks (Won 4)
- US Open: Complete a shot in the playoff
- Winnings: $20 million in course gross income
- End call: Score 10 times in the top 4 in 24 individual events
- Hits achieved: Second in the category as of January 1
Poor performance like he did on Sunday to lose his fifth trophy of the year will linger, but Scheffler isn’t bored with cash on the table at East Lake. So I don’t believe he will be undone by a single inning in a tournament because so much good has happened before that.
“It’s obviously a lot of money,” said Scheffler. “Playing golf professionally for a living is a gift. For me, I don’t golf for the money. I play to win tournaments, and I play for fun and do my best and watch the game. Where can it take me today money certainly didn’t come to my mind I want to win the title all season I’ve had a really great year and I want to end it with a win won here, and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to. But at the end of the day, it’s a gift to be out here playing golf and making money, and I’m so grateful to be out here.”
Scheffler’s loss was really reminiscent of the 2018 Tour championship when McIlroy was (accidentally) paired with eventual winner Tiger Woods in the final group. McIlroy shot 74, completely undisputed. Despite Tiger’s landmark victory and Europe’s progress to the Ryder Cup a week later, it certainly left a bitter taste in Rory’s mouth. The following year, however, he played some of the best golf games of his life.
After finishing in the top five of the first five PGA Tour tournaments of 2019 following a poor finish at East Lake in late 2018, McIlroy went on to win The Players Championship in March and the Canadian Open in the summer. that summer. It was the second-best statistical season of his career, according to Data Golf.
Can Scheffler find the same momentum and trajectory after a loss like this one?
“Scottie Scheffler is going to win Player of the Year,” McIlroy said. “There’s no doubt about it. You know, it would be fitting if he ended his breakout season with the FedEx Cup title. I think he deserves this probably more than I deserve. He’s had an unbelievable season. He didn’t have his best today, and I played well and took advantage of that. Scottie will have more chances to win. won the FedEx Cup. What a player, what a goddamn competitor. Who’s even better. Love his family.
“Look, it’s hard. You really don’t know what to say on the 18th pitch because he’s had such a great year, but he’s coming back, and he’s a great player, and I was tell him this is definitely not the last time we’ll have these battles on the golf course.”
Three truths persisted after Scheffler’s slip on Sunday that he can cling to for the future.
The best players seem to have an unusual ability to split losses and place them in inaccessible places. If Scheffler hadn’t done this, he probably would never have risen to world No. If this is not a prerequisite to becoming the best player in the world, then it is a bad one.
Who you are is far more important than what you do. The viral video of Scheffler’s father and wife embracing McIlroy – after their guy kicked away $11.5 million and his fifth win on national television – personified grace. It speaks to Scheffler’s character. Maybe that doesn’t matter when it comes to the world of sports, but on the contrary, maybe only important thing.
The ultimate truth is the hardest truth McIlroy for internalization. He told Scheffler after their game that they are now even in the state of Georgia this year. Although the scoreboard confirms this – the duo finished 1-2 in both masters and the Tour Championship – both know they’re not quite even.
This should be something Scheffler carries this fall and beyond. Because of an exciting and celebratory day like this for McIlroy, he will still trade all his gains, all his gains in 2022 capped by another big win on Sunday for Scottie’s even bigger win that Sunday in Georgia just four months ago.
