By Doug Ferguson, AP.
Scottie Scheffler thought the bunker shot was ideal until he saw it bounce hard off a sprinkler, roll across the green and disappear down the slope and into the water. A sure birdie turned into a bogey. His two-shot lead Sunday in the FedEx St. Jude Championship was down to one.
For a player who has endured five runner-up finishes in nearly seven months of close calls, Scheffler had reason to wonder what was next to go wrong. He asked caddie Ted Scott as they walked over to take a penalty drop, “When is this going to stop happening?”
Almost immediately, as it turned out.
Scheffler drilled a mid-iron to 10 feet for birdie two holes later. He holed a 20-foot birdie on the next. A two-shot lead at the start quickly turned into a runaway. He closed with a 4-under 66 for an eight-shot victory, the largest margin in 68 years at the TPC Southwind.
“I felt like I had some close calls this year, so it was nice to finish the tournament off,” Scheffler said.
It helped to post a 61 in the second round and keep the lead going into Sunday. This was his 11th straight time he converted a 54-hole lead into a win.
This victory was the 21st of his career — all since 2022 — and it ended nearly seven months without a title during a season that has been marked by astonishing consistency but only one trophy to show for it from his season opener at The American Express in the California desert.
“I felt like a week like this was coming,” Scheffler said. “I felt like I was on repeat all year just being like, ‘Hey, I’m playing solid. I’m close.’ It feels good to be answering some different questions at the end of this week.”
He finished at 17-under 263, eight shots clear of his Dallas neighbor Si Woo Kim, who closed with a 68 to finish eight shots behind. The previous record was John Cook winning at TPC Southwind by seven shots in 1996.
Scheffler has now won 10 of his 21 tour titles by four shots or more.
More than a few of those games were with Kim, who earlier this year said of Scheffler, “He calls me ATM.” Kim moved to a career-best No. 13 in the world.
Im wound up with a 75 to tie for fifth, but it was enough for the South Korean to move from No. 53 into the top 50 who advance to the BMW Championship next week in St. Louis. Im kept alive his chances of reaching the Tour Championship every year since he was a rookie in 2019.
Im bumped out Keith Mitchell, who stood in the water left of the 18th fairway to play a shot from the bank as he tried to give himself his best chance. That shot tumbled into the water, he made bogey and narrowly missed out.
So did Jordan Spieth, who needed to close with four pars to reach the BMW Championship for the first time since 2023, and finished with a bogey from the water on No. 15 and three pars for a 70.
The top 50 who advance also are assured of playing all the $20 million signature events next year.
Scheffler put himself squarely in the mix for a fifth straight PGA Tour player of the year during a season in which no one has stood out based on titles alone. The body of work has been impressive, and Scheffler still has two tournaments remaining.