ATLANTA — When the best player in golf hits one of the most cringe-inducing shots in the game, it is understandably shocking. And leads to thecuriosity associated with anyone who hits a shank: how will he respond?
Scottie Scheffler hit one of those infamous ugly hosel killers during the final round of the Tour Championship on Sunday, leading to a bogey that saw his lead in the season-ending PGA Tour event drop to two shots over Collin Morikawa.
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 1, 2024No one is immune to the shank.
Not even Scottie Scheffler. pic.twitter.com/RVlQfZyzjG
Seeing as Scheffler coughed up a six-shot lead over the closing day at this tournament two years ago and had just bogeyed three of his last four holes, it was fair to wonder if things mightbe going awry for Scheffler, who has dominated the PGA Tour this year unlike any player since Tiger Woods.
No chance.
Scheffler, who hit a shank from a fairway bunker on the 8th hole at East Lake on Sunday and saw his FedEx Cup title chances teetering, responded by hitting his tee shot stiff to the par-3 9th and then adding birdies at the 10thand 11th holes.
The lead was back to five and Scheffler was on his way to putting the finishing touches on a historic year on the PGA Tour.
Scheffler shot a final-round 67 to finish the “starting strokes” format for the Tour Championship at 30 under par (he was 20 under for the 72 holes) to defeat Morikawa by four shots and finish six ahead of Sahith Theegala.
It was his seventh official win this year on the PGA Tour, the most of any player since Woods in 2007, and capped a season that saw him win a major championship, welcome a first child and make national headlines with what turned out to be a bogus arrest for a traffic incident at the PGA Championship.
“If you can describe it in words, more power to you, because I don't think I can,” said Scheffler afterward. “It's been a long year. It's been a very fun year. I think emotionally right now I'm pretty drained.
“I really don't know how to put it into words. It's been a very eventful year but it's been really fun. You had the one weird spot there at Valhalla, which—I just don't really know what to say about it, but everything else has been pretty special.”
Scheffler earned a $25 million bonus from the FedEx Cup’s $100 million bonus payout, money which is not considered “official” in the PGA Tour record book.
MORE: Complete payouts from the Tour Championship
He earned a record $29,228,357 in official PGA Tour earnings, another $8 million for being the leading player in the Tour’s Comcast Business bonus pool through the Wyndham Championship, and then the $25 million on Sunday to bring his season haul to $62,228,357.
Just in case Scheffler is hurting, he’ll undoubtedly get some of the Player Impact Program bonus money as well.
“I think it’s on part with those great years of Tiger’s,” said Adam Scott, who tied for fourth. “I think it’s very hard today for anyone to separate themselves as much as Scottie has. I don’t think we’ve seen that in a long time. I think it’s harder to do today.”
Scheffler won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship in back-to-back weeks in March. He then won the Masters and the RBC Heritage in consecutive weeks. He added the Memorial Tournament and the Travelers Championship before capturing the gold medal at the Olympics.
A year ago, Scheffler lamented a balky putter that clearly prevented him from winning more, despite dominating in numerous statistical categories.
Things changed when he went to a mallet-style putter prior to the Arnold Palmer event, with improved putting stats for most of the year.
Last year, he was at the bottom of the strokes-gained putting statistics at East Lake. This year, he was third—as well as first in strokes-gained off the tee, third in tee to green, third in approach to the green, and tied for first in proximity to the hole.
“I think the one thing I've always admired about Scottie is the amount of bogey-free rounds he shoots,” said Rory McIlroy, who has won the FedEx Cup three times but finished tied for ninth this year. “If you just go back over the last two, three years and you look at how many rounds he shoots that he'll shoot like 4 under par, no bogeys, doesn't look spectacular at all, but it's just so solid, doesn't really put himself out of position. When you don't make a ton of bogeys, the field has got to do something really special to keep up.
“I think golf is such a game of momentum, and when the momentum is going with you and you're making birdies and you're shooting scores in the 60s all the time, all you see are birdies and shooting scores in the 60s. It's like a self-fulfilling sort of thing.
“Then when you get it going the wrong way in golf and you're seeing bogeys, all you see is bogeys and you're shooting in the 70s and you're struggling—I think at the peak of his powers, his confidence is as high as it ever has been, and it's a pretty nice feeling to have on the golf course.”
Said Viktor Hovland, who won the FedEx Cup a year ago: “It just seems like he's basically doing what he did last year, putting probably a little bit more consistently, and when you hit it as good as he does every single week and you start making some putts, you're going to be very difficult to beat. It just seems like he's putting everything together.”
Typically the next shot after a shank is the most difficult for any golfer, but Scheffler was unfazed. He said that he’d sometimes had trouble on those kind of bunker shots but that the next one, a chip, was not a problem.
He ended up making a bogey, got a pep talk from his caddie, Ted Scott on the way to the 9th tee, and took care of business.
“I was definitely frustrated,” Scheffler said “I've been playing really solid golf the rest of the week. I've been playing really well, and I just happened to have two bad holes in a row, basically. I hadn't really had many bad holes the whole week, and they just happened to come in a row.
“Teddy did a good job of reminding me that we're still in control of the tournament, I'm still playing great, just get out and get back to work basically is the speech he kind gave me, is just get back to work, and that's what we did.”
