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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Scottie Scheffler took on the scary TPC Sawgrass as if he was taking part in alone. And by the point he bought carried out with a masterful efficiency Sunday within the Players Championship, that is about the way it seemed.
Scheffler ran off 5 straight birdies in the course of his spherical, constructed a 6-shot lead and left all of the drama to everybody else on his method to a 3-under 69 to win the richest prize on the PGA Tour by 5 pictures.
The victory was price $4.5 million and despatched Scheffler again to No. 1 on the earth for the second time this 12 months. He now has six victories in his previous 27 begins on the PGA Tour, together with the 4 wins he had final 12 months, culminated by his Masters title.
When he poured in a 20-foot par putt on the ultimate gap, Scheffler had the biggest margin of victory within the Players since Stephen Ames gained by 6 in 2006.
“I bought sizzling in the course of the spherical and tried to place issues away as shortly as I can,” Scheffler mentioned. “Gosh, it is enjoyable.”
And then the celebration was on along with his spouse, dad and mom, sister and 87-year-old grandmother, who saved tempo with him for a lot of the day.
That’s one thing the strongest area of the 12 months could not do.
Tyrrell Hatton birdied his final 5 holes for a 65, ending when Scheffler was making the flip. Viktor Hovland (68) and Tom Hoge (70) had been 7 pictures behind in a tie for third, every making almost $1.5 million from the $25 million purse.
Scheffler, who completed at 17-under 271, grew to become solely the third participant to win at TPC Sawgrass with all 4 rounds within the 60s.
Min Woo Lee of Australia, making his Players Championship debut, briefly was tied for the lead however completed with a 76.
Lee made one too many blunders, not that it will have modified something the best way Scheffler lit up TPC Sawgrass. One of them got here on the par-4 fourth, when Lee was tied for the lead. He chipped out of the tough solely to have his third shot spin again into the water, resulting in a triple bogey.
By the time he recovered, Scheffler was racing away.
It began when Scheffler chipped in from the collar of a bunker on the par-3 eighth, and he closed out the entrance 9 with an aggressive play on the par-5 ninth that arrange a chip-and-a-putt birdie.
Hatton teed off two hours forward of Scheffler, and he capped off his closing run of 5 straight birdies as Scheffler headed for the again 9. Hatton, the primary participant to shoot 29 on the again 9 at Sawgrass on a Sunday, posed at 12-under 276.
The wind was gusting near 30 mph, which solely provides to the difficulty on this course. Scheffler stayed aggressive, although, holing an 18-foot birdie on the tenth, 2-putting from 70 toes on the par-5 eleventh and taking over the reachable par-4 twelfth with a 3-wood to pin excessive good of the inexperienced. That arrange his fifth straight birdie, and a 6-shot lead.
For the ultimate two hours, it was a cash seize for everybody else — and a few wasted money for individuals who fell sufferer to the wind and water and the merciless Players Stadium Course.
Hatton, who began the ultimate spherical 9 pictures behind, completed off his 5 straight birdies with a 4-iron out of the pine straw and across the timber to twenty toes.
He gained $2,725,000 — simply over $1 million greater than his Bay Hill victory in 2020.
Hideki Matsuyama was inside 1 shot — earlier than Scheffler went on his birdie run — solely to take double bogey on the 14th, fail to birdie the par-5 sixteenth and bogey the 18th. He was 7 underneath for the spherical via 13 holes and needed to accept a 68.
The largest meltdown belonged to PGA Tour rookie Taylor Montgomery, who was tied for fourth till a bogey on the fifteenth, a double bogey on No. 16 (with out hitting within the water) and two balls within the water on the seventeenth — a full shot and a chip — for a quintuple-bogey 7.
He dropped 40 spots on the leaderboard, and at No. 55 on the earth, that saved him from cracking the highest 50 within the rating and sure securing a spot within the Masters.
Ultimately, although, this was a one-man present.
Scheffler has been successful in bunches since he was a junior star in Dallas, and as soon as he bought happening the most important stage, he hasn’t actually stopped. This was his sixth win prior to now 13 months, all of them in opposition to a few of the strongest fields in golf.
The $4.5 million pushed his season complete to over $10.4 million — the primary main remains to be a month away — and introduced his complete to $24.5 million prior to now two seasons.
And that “algorithm” that Scheffler known as the Official World Golf Ranking now has him at No. 1, and it is robust to debate.
“He’s in a great place to have the ability to proceed to do that some time,” Jordan Spieth mentioned.
