PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — There she was again up on that hill, the same one as a year ago, this time carrying the next generation of the Scheffler family. Meredith Scheffler stood overlooking TPC Sawgrass’ 18th green Sunday with a large sun hat shielding her face and the protruding belly carrying their first child due next month. See, Scottie Scheffler cries just thinking about Meredith. He cried with her the morning two years ago before he won the Masters. When he won this same tournament a year ago, he raised his arms in celebration, seemingly having a moment with the Florida crowd. But no.
“I was really just looking at Mere on the hill,” Scheffler said last week, reminiscing from the back of his throat, choking up, tears in eyes as he trailed off.
But this time he had to wait. A Sunday 64 gave him the comeback lead at The Players Championship, but for another 40 minutes, he’d have to wait off on the driving range for the pack of Wyndham Clark, Xander Schauffele and Brian Harman to try and catch him with a birdie on 18. Harman’s putt missed. Schauffele’s didn’t have a chance. And once Clark’s birdie putt spun around the cup and out to give Scheffler a record second consecutive Players title, he didn’t even see it. Scheffler just heard the groans hundreds of yards away and high-fived his caddie, Ted Scott. Then Scheffler eventually made his way up to the Sawgrass clubhouse. And running down those stairs to meet him midway was Meredith, her arms thrown around him, squeezing each other tightly for a full minute. By the time they released, Scheffler’s face was bright red.
“Yeah, I always get emotional when I talk about Meredith for some reason,” he said two weeks ago. “I think Mere has such a good understanding of how much work it takes to get to this point. To win a tournament like this. All the work we put in day in, day out in order to be able to do this.”
But when Scheffler won this tournament a year ago, he was still in ascension. He was on his way back to No. 1, a clean-shaven 26-year-old learning how to become a star.
A bearded Scheffler returned to reclaim it Sunday as a man. As a soon-to-be father. As the undeniable, undisputed best golfer in the world. And it’s everything that’s happened in between that makes what comes next so clear.
Because he gave his competition a chance. Those first three years, when he learned to be a pro. He gave them a year when every 5-foot putt was a question mark. And this week in Ponte Vedra, he gave them two days in which he was simply “slapping it around” as a neck injury threatened his tournament. No matter how many head starts and free passes Scheffler gave the rest of golf, none of them were enough. The field wasted their opportunities. They missed their window. Now Scheffler is fully formed, battle-tested and about to dominate the sport indefinitely.
Scottie Scheffler is the first repeat champion in Players Championship history. (David Yeazell / USA Today) The putting was their chance. Scheffler’s been on a two-year run of ball striking not seen since prime Tiger Woods, but his putting cratered. It messed with him. He fell outside the top 100 on putts within 10 feet, and the questions every week centered around the topic only frustrated him more. Yet even with a dud putter, no golfer could catch him as world No. 1. And then Scheffler found it. All of a sudden, once he could putt at a positive level one week ago at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Scheffler left the rest of the field gasping for air as he ran away for a five-shot lead.
So Friday, when Scheffler hit a second-round shot on No. 11 and felt it aggravate his neck, he was out of it, right? He couldn’t get his club back. He needed to be massaged before the next three holes. He and caddie Scott guessed on club choices because they didn’t know what would happen on any given swing. When he still shot a third-round 68 to put himself five back of the leader, Schauffele, he described his round as “just using my hands as much as I can … get it up there somewhere near the green and hopefully get up-and-down or make some putts.”
During the second round, Scheffler told Scott it was so painful that it was hard to chip. Scott told his wife, “I don’t know if he can finish this tournament.” Saturday, he was more frustrated he couldn’t hit the shots he wanted. The conversations before each swing turned into Scott saying, “A normal you would be an 8-iron. How normal do you feel?” At times Scheffler could hardly move.
“It just shows you what tenacity, resilience, whatever fancy word you wanna use to describe Scottie Scheffler,” Scott said. “Toughness. But also, he’s got great hands.”
So by the time Scheffler felt close to normal Sunday, it was like the best golfer in the world gave the field a five-shot head start.
Good luck.
He hit his 92-yard wedge on No. 4 that took two bounces, spun left and fell into the hole for eagle. He made a 17-foot putt on No. 5 to get within two shots of Schauffele. His 238-yard tee shot into the par-3 8th bounced perfectly off the front rough to 16 feet, and he made that, too. Once he easily birdied 9 to shoot the front nine at 5-under par — two shots better than anyone else in the top 15 — the leaders began to notice another familiar name next to theirs.
“Yeah, of course,” Clark said.
“It’s just another week,” Schauffele joked.
Scheffler is reaching that tier, that zone, that aura when his name rises up the leaderboard and everyone realizes they’re screwed. Because the rest of Scheffler’s round was less about his brilliance (though he was), but about the ways none of Schauffele, Clark or Harman could keep it together and execute with him on their tails. Clark bogeyed No. 10 and parred the 326-yard, par-4 12th that the field averaged 3.740 on. Schauffele lost control of his driver to bogey both 14 and 15, and left an eagle putt on 16 short. And Clark excruciatingly missed that birdie putt on 18.
But Scottie, he went and grabbed it. He stepped to the 12th tee, that short par 4 that threatens with water left, and went for it. He launched a comically high-arcing drive into the air that hung there for seemingly minutes. It hit the green along the front right slope, and still the crowd refused to cheer until it could confirm its safety. But then that tee shot settled in the center of the green. And the fans erupted, giving him a full ovation as he walked to the green. By then the gallery knew. Scheffler was about to win the golf tournament.
He “only” birdied one more hole to shoot his 8-under-par round of 64 — tied for the lowest winning final round in Players history — but his work was done. He did what Scheffler does. He hit targets. Set up easy two-putts. Got out of there with a lead that nobody could catch.
He was asked if he could have envisioned holding that trophy Friday as physiotherapist Marnus Marais massaged his neck on the 14th tee.
“Yeah, I think so,” Scheffler said. “That’s probably why I kept playing.”
That kind of thinking is rare. Not just the presence of mind to say it, but the wherewithal to do it. That’s the way Tiger Woods thinks, and for better or worse that is now the kind of company Scheffler will keep. He has only one major. He knows that. But since he won that 2022 Masters, his last six majors have gone T2, T21, T10, 2, 3 and T23. More are coming.
What’s frightening for the rest of golf is that he could go through the putting woes, he could go through all the frustrating close finishes when he couldn’t quite win and come out of the gantlet stronger. His ball striking keeps getting inexplicably better. He can run away with a signature event at Bay Hill and then win The Players with a bad neck. The greatness of Scheffler isn’t how good he is. It’s that he can bound over the hurdles and not lose his stride.
But what’s always made Scheffler so different without a golf club in his hand is how unaffected he is by fame and this greatness conversation. He often jokes about losing his green Masters jacket. He talks constantly about how he values his home life and family far more than a silly game like golf. He cares a great deal about golf, but it does not define him. And not allowing golf to define him means not allowing his best and worst moments to take him off track.
“I really do have a great support system,” Scheffler said Sunday. “I’m very thankful for it. I have a great wife, and if I started taking my trophies and putting them all over the house and walking in all big-time, I think she would smack me on the side of the head and tell me to get over myself pretty quickly. Winning golf tournaments doesn’t give me any brownie points at home, so I just try and do my best.”
And as Scheffler’s celebratory news conference wrapped up, one final question arrived. It was about Tiger, who famously spent 281 straight weeks at world No. 1.
Scheffler heartily laughed because just three weeks ago at the Genesis Invitational, a fan shouted: “Congrats on being No. 1, Scottie. Eleven more years to go.”
“Eleven more years to go,” Scheffler repeated quietly. In that moment, he felt playfully humbled. And he heard a new goal.
(Top photo: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)
