PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — For the first 49 years of The Players Championship, there was no consecutive champion.
Jack Nicklaus couldn't do that (three times). Fred Couples (twice), Davis Love III (twice), Tiger Woods (twice) and many others couldn't either.
On Sunday, world No. 1 Scottie Schaeffler became the first back-to-back Players champion, chasing down Xander Schauffele from a five-stroke lead at the start of the final round at the 50th edition of the 5th Major at TPC Sawgrass. It became. 72 holes total 20 under.
Scheffler, who finished with an 8-under 64, said, “Just one win at The Players is tough.'' “So it's very special to have won back-to-backs. So yeah, I'm really grateful.”
With recent major championship winners Brian Harman (British Open) and Windham Clark (US Open) in pursuit, as well as world No. 6 Schauffele, Scheffler sees the trio trying to get a good result. All I could do was watch from the practice field. One more birdie and we will advance to the playoffs.
Scheffler's second win in recent weeks came after Clark birdied the iconic 17th hole to move into first place, before his 17-foot birdie attempt on the difficult 18th brutally caught the left lip. It wasn't confirmed until I saw it spin out for par.
“I was out of range,” Scheffler said. “I was listening to the noise in the crowd. I heard a groan, so it sounded like I missed a putt.”
Clark, who held a four-shot lead after 36 holes, said he was “disappointed” when his attempt failed.
“I don't know why that putt didn't go in,” Clark said. “It felt like right-center, and I was one step away from hitting it, and I knew it was going to keep breaking down. But I had the speed, and I thought it was going to go inside left, and it was going to rip a little bit. Even when I was there, I thought, “I'll get in.'' I’m pretty disappointed that I didn’t get in.”
Scheffler is the fourth Players winner to shoot 65 or more in the final round, joining Nicklaus (65 in 1976), Couples (64 in 1996) and Love (64 in 2003). Ta.
Herman, Schauffele and Clark tied for second at 19 under. Former British Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick birdied the final four holes and finished fifth at 16 under.
Scheffler matched the biggest comeback by a Players Championship winner at TPC Sawgrass. Justin Leonard and Henrik Stenson also came back from five deficits in the final round in 1998 and 2009, respectively. Scheffler did not hit a bogey in his final 31 holes.
Scheffler struggled with a neck injury in the second and third rounds, but fought through the pain Saturday to birdie four of the remaining five holes and stay in the tournament.
“I've said it before, when you have an acute injury like that, if you can wake up the next day feeling a little bit better or exactly the same, that's a win,” Scheffler said. Ta. “Usually the next morning it's even worse. I woke up on Saturday feeling a little bit better and yesterday I was able to get a few shots, but not that many. And I woke up today feeling a little bit better. It was pretty close to normal. I went out and felt good about my round of golf. ”
“It was a hot day,” Scheffler said after returning to batting position. [Sunday] You might be able to go far. ”
He was really fired up during the last 18 holes. After making pars on his first three holes, he started his round with a hole-out eagle on the par-4 fourth, 92 yards out, to move to 14 under. He then sank an 18-foot putt for birdie on No. 5, followed by birdie putts of 16 feet and 11 feet on Nos. 8 and 9, respectively.
Former Masters champion Scheffler made back-to-back birdies on Nos. 11 and 12 to take a share of the lead at 19 under. He missed a 5-foot birdie putt on No. 1, wasting his chance to take the sole lead. .13, which was the only miss that came within 5 feet of the tournament.
Clark said he saw the scoreboard for the first time at 11 o'clock.
“I kind of laughed and said, 'Oh, sure,'” he said. “I mean, he's the best player in the world.”
When Schauffele saw Scheffler near the summit, he thought to himself, “One week left.”
After trailing Schauffele by one, Scheffler tied Schauffele again at 20 under on the par-5 16th. After hitting his approach shot into a small greenside pot bunker, Scheffler chipped out to 1 foot for birdie. By that point, Schauffele had hit back-to-back bogeys, Clark had fallen back, and Herman was out of holes.