Scottie Scheffler's shank revealed something. His admission later, too

Scottie Scheffler’s shank revealed something. His admission later, too | Monday Finish

Posted by Admin September 2, 2024 Golf

September 2, 2024

Scottie Scheffler’s Tour Championship win revealed two interesting things about him.

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GOLF STUFF I LIKE

Two things we learned about Scottie Scheffler.

If you skipped Sunday’s action at the Tour Championship, checked the final score and dismissed it as another Scottie Scheffler beatdown, you’re not wrong, exactly. But you also missed out on a special moment.

Scheffler began the day with a five-shot lead. By the time he reached the fourth hole it was a seven-shot lead. Over the next several holes, though, things changed quickly. Wayward drives left at 5 and 7 led to bogeys, and by the time Scheffler took his stance in a greenside bunker at the drivable par-4 8th his lead had shrunk to four. Then Scheffler hit a cold, hard shank with that bunker shot, sending his ball skittering off the other side of the green. From there he shorted his chip shot and walked off with another bogey, while playing partner Collin Morikawa made birdie to suddenly draw within two.

Scheffler’s post-round shank explanation was interesting. “That actual specific bunker shot, for some reason I need to figure out why, but I shank it a lot more often than I should when I’m on a side slope like that,” he said. His in-round response was downright jaw-dropping. A soaring long-iron at No. 9 from 236 yards to five feet. Birdie. A towering wedge at No. 10 to three feet. Birdie. And a 15-footer for birdie at No. 11 that Scheffler walked in with hardly a reaction, all of which combined to say something to the effect of enough screwing around as he rebuilt his lead to something insurmountable. Then came the door-slamming eagle at No. 14, a reminder that Scheffler isn’t just a talented golfer. He’s the world’s most talented golfer. And he’s an absolute killer, too.

We learned something from that, not something new but a reminder: The 2024 version of Scheffler is different, and his 2024 season was different. Scheffler’s different than Viktor Hovland was a year ago, or Rory McIlroy a year before that, or Patrick Cantlay a year before that. This Scheffler is different than the Scheffler of those years, too — different than last year and the year before, where he also entered East Lake with the lead but left having surrendered it. Instead, when he won this time around it reinforced the idea that his season — the Players, the Masters, half the Signature Events, Olympic Gold, now the Tour Championship — was different than any PGA Tour season since one Tiger Woods played a decade and a half ago.

“Yeah, it’s great,” Scheffler said, asked to sum up his seven-win season. But then he paused. “Still don’t understand why the Olympics doesn’t count. That’s a bit weird to me. I think that’s part of the greed that goes on in your brain is you say seven, I’m like, ‘I won eight.’ I won the Olympics in the middle of the year, and for some reason it doesn’t count as an official PGA Tour win. It counts the same as — no offense to the Hero — but it counts the same as the Hero World Challenge in the grand scheme of things.”

Who’s counting? Scheffler, clearly. Winner.

We learned something else, too, about the way Scheffler thinks and the way he cares. This came in an interview with Mike Tirico as he accepted the winner’s trophy and was asked about his season.

“It’s hard to put into words what this year has been like for me,” he said. He thanked his wife and his son, but it was telling where his mind went next.

“Really, to the fans as well,” he said. “After the stuff that happened in Louisville I didn’t really know exactly what was going to happen when I showed up to the first tee. But the reception I got on the tee was something I’ll remember for a long time.”

The stuff that happened in Louisville could be a good album title but in this case refers to Scheffler’s bizarre arrest at the PGA Championship due to an unfortunate miscommunication with an overzealous member of the Louisville P.D. In real time Scheffler seemed to take the episode in stride and and in the weeks that followed he sidestepped questions on the subject, citing ongoing legal proceedings. But this recall at season’s end seemed telling.

In real time it was as easy as it was for the internet to fire off jokes about Scheffler’s orange-jumpsuited mugshot. But transport yourself to Scheffler’s shoes and the entire episode must have been jarring. A reminder that things can go wrong, even for the most talented among us, and that even if you spend your life trying to treat people the right way, a stranger on a dark, rainy morning won’t know that. I’m sure Scheffler had never really imagined himself as someone who’d end up in a jail cell. Once he’d become that person, perhaps his worldview shifted just a bit.

The recall to Tirico seemed like an admission of exactly that. That Scheffler had emerged different and that, for the first time, he worried what people might think. For a guy who’d never been accused of being anything but a little boring, this was new. And it was a relief that the public took his side.

In all we learned that Scheffler post-shank is still the best player in the world. We learned that Scheffler’s Louisville episode left a real impression. Combined, we learned that Scheffler is human. Just really, really good with a long-iron.

Learning new things about Scottie Scheffler, eight wins later: that’s golf stuff I like.

WINNERS

Who won the week?

Scottie Scheffler won the Tour Championship and its $25 million first prize. Good week.

Haeran Ryu rebounded from a Saturday 78 with a Sunday 64 to chase down Jin Young Ko — and then beat her on the first extra hole to win the inaugural FM Championship at TPC Boston.

Niklas Norgaard fulfilled a lifelong dream by capturing his maiden win on the DP World Tour at age 32. The Danish pro overcame a viral chipping meltdown at No. 15 to win the Betfred British Masters by two.

Team Great Britain and Ireland won their first Curtis Cup since 2016 by a single point in a dramatic finish at Sunningdale Golf Club.

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NOT-WINNERS

Not his year.

Rory McIlroy played well but never contended at the Tour Championship, a result that was in some ways fitting for a season that was solid but, by his lofty standards, still disappointing. He described feeling like a “distant third” in the world behind Scheffler and Xander Schauffele and, even though he still has five starts left this fall to make 27 for the year, plans to cut back his schedule for 2025.

“I’m usually sort of like a 22 [start] sort of person. But again, that was when I was sort of in my 20s and didn’t have the responsibilities that I do now,” he said. “I’m going to try to cut it back to like 18 or 20 a year going forward, I think.”

Whether that’s just end-of-season fatigue talking remains to be seen; in the meantime we’ll look forward to McIlroy at the Horizon Irish Open at the legendary Royal County Down in just two weeks’ time.

SHORT HITTERS

Five pros (other than Scottie) who left the Tour Championship happy.

Collin Morikawa shot the lowest 72-hole score in the field, earning a win on the “fake leaderboard.” He finished second on the adjusted leaderboard, earning $12 million. He moved back up to No. 4 in the world and capped off a terrific season. “I needed a lot lower and I knew that. But I fought hard, and all week, honestly, that’s kind of the golf I missed playing,” he said. “Hopefully we can use this as a stepping stone into next year.”

Sahith Theegala shot the second-lowest 72-hole score in the field. He also called a penalty on himself mid-round Saturday, earning the respect of the golfing public — and then rebounded with seven birdies on the back nine and eight more in Sunday’s round to finish solo third.

Russell Henley finished better than anyone, making birdie at No. 17 and then pitching in for eagle from 35 yards out at No. 18 to finish off a round of 9-under 62 that got him into T4 and the biggest payday — $4.83 mil — of his career. He also all but guaranteed a spot on the Presidents Cup team in the process. “Obviously a dream of mine, why I work so hard is to make one of these teams. Hopefully it works out,” he said.

Adam Scott finished strong, too; just last week he had to play his way into the Tour Championship and took full advantage once he got here, shooting 66-67-68-67 to finish T4 alongside Henley. “All of a sudden I feel like I’m a good player again,” he said post-round.

And Justin Thomas, who arrived at No. 30, the last man in the field, put together a solid case for the U.S. Presidents Cup team’s final captain’s pick when he made eight birdies in a Sunday 65 to turn in the seventh-best score of the week. “Really hope I get a chance at Presidents Cup because I feel like — it was fun. These last couple days and this week I played really, really well. It was nice to have a good round to finish off the season today.”