Scottie Scheffler Is Champion Golfer Of The Year
A four-stroke win over Harris English at Royal Portrush adds a fourth major to the collection.
Hopes for a Calamity Slam died Sunday when Scottie Scheffler yanked a 14-footer at Royal Portrush’s vaunted one-shotter, ending an unfathomable run of birdies on the 236-yarder.
And that amounted to the Ulster drama Sunday when Scheffler captured The 153rd Open Championship for the first time to go with three majors. The 29-year-old is one U.S. Open win away from becoming the seventh holder of the career Grand Slam.
The final margin of victory of four strokes over Harris English was nearly a carbon copy of this year’s PGA Championship, where the former Georgia star tied for second, five behind Scheffler.
Five strokes back in third place was American Chris Gotterup, the recent Genesis Scottish Open winner playing in his first Open Championship and fourth major.
Scheffler’s dominance means the last three Champion Golfers of the Year are from America (Brian Harman and Xander Schauffele).
Of the 13 players finishing T10 or better in The 153rd, eight were Americans.
But back to Sunday’s “drama.” Scheffler started Sunday with a four-stroke lead over Haotong Li and birdied the first hole to dash the field’s hope he had woken up and decided to become the field’s other ordained Monk.
A brief hiccup in the par-4 eighth’s fairway bunker led to his only double bogey of the week and a seven-stroke lead briefly reduced to five. A bounce-back birdie at the ninth immediately turned Sunday into a coronation. Scheffler had converted ten straight 54-hole leads. Or eleven straight if Hero World Challenge wins are your thing. But that 20-player silly season event certainly does not come with a well-deserved “Champion Golfer Of The Year” tag, a Claret Jug or a $3.1 million check.
With rounds of 68-64-67-68, Scheffler joins 90 other immortals who’ve had their names engraved on sports’ fifth oldest winning prize.
Scheffler separated himself from the field in too many ways to count, but six birdies in 16 par-3 chances seems especially brilliant given the difficulty of Portrush’s difficult one-shotters. He led the field with a 37.5% birdie conversion rate on the par-3’s. And not only did he avoid Calamity, he slayed the monstrous 236-yard 16th. The hole where past greats have intentionally played away from the green in fear of coming up short.
The 153rd field hit the green 200 times out of 452 (44% GIR rate). Scheffler’s four tee shots at Calamity finished a total of 48 feet from the cup:
3 feet 5 inches (Birdie)
17 feet 5 inches (Birdie)
14 feet 4 inches (Birdie)
14 feet 4 inches (Par)
About that lowly par. Scottie, what went wrong?
“I was fortunate to be able to enjoy the walk with a putter versus having to go down there into the ravine and try to hit a wedge out,” he said of his week on the 16th. “I'm very grateful for the tee shots this week, but like you said, disappointed with a par today.”
He was smiling (in case you hadn’t guessed).
Initial impression of the hole?
“The first day we played it, it was raining and blowing in out of the left, and I smoked a 3-wood to 30 feet, and I thought it was a pretty amazing shot,” Scheffler said after hoisting the Jug. “And then I was playing against Sam Burns in a practice round, and he hit 3-wood to about 25 feet and made it. I was like, shoot, just hit a great shot and I lost this hole still.”
Scheffler’s secret to success came down to his affinity for a hole that induces heartburn in most.
“It's one of the coolest views that I've seen in the game of golf, to be honest with you,” he said. “Teddy [Scott] and I were standing there, I think it was on Friday, we were kind of looking out. It was a day in which you had a bunch of rain and there was a rainbow on the other side and you're looking out over the golf course on the right, and you've got the huge bluffs by the ocean and it's just mounds and hills, and the town is in the distance. It's a really, really cool hole.”
No contestant in The Open birdied the hole more than Scheffler even with his failure to make his 14-footer on Sunday.
Matt Fitzpatrick the hole two-under par and seven other were one-under-par for the week.
The Calamity calamity aside, rare birdies at such a vaunted hole would not have happened without the incredible putting and total lack of drama on the greens that has marked his early career years. Scheffler’s transformation from a below average putter to one of the best at Portrush starts with the well-documented switch to TaylorMade’s Spider Tour X mallet in 2024—for which Rory McIlroy deserves some credit—and later that year, advice from short game guru Phil Kenyon to employ a claw grip on putts inside 20-or-so feet.
Scheffler gained 8.5 strokes on the field at Portrush. He only three-putted once and never appeared remotely flustered on the pure surfaces a week after struggling with the Scottish Open greens.
“If it was two or three years ago and I had a week like I had last week on the greens where I felt like I was hitting good putts and they weren't going in, kind of a frustrating week overall, I would have maybe questioned things or tried something different this week, but basically the conversation was on Monday and Tuesday, when I was discussing things with Phil, it was basically, ‘how did you feel last week?’
“‘I'm like, man, I felt like I did pretty good. I felt like I was hitting my lines, but the ball just wasn't going in. The only thing I want to check is make sure my setup is good and make sure I'm lined up where I think I'm lined up at.’ Phil checked it, and we kind of went from there. I was lined up where I thought I was, so I didn't really put much thought to it. Came out this week and putted nice.”
Open Champion nice.
The Champion Golfer’s Speech
Well, I don't really know exactly what to say. Thank you so much to the fans this week for all the support. I know I wasn't the fan favourite today, but I did hear a lot of USA and Dallas, Texas chants. So I appreciate you guys coming out to support.
Overall, it's been a great week. The fan support all week was tremendous. It was a ton of fun to get to play here. I got to play with Shane the first couple days, and you guys coming out to support Shane the way you did was really special. It was really fun to play in front of such a great crowd.
To my family, starting with my wife and my son, thank you so much for the support. I couldn't do any of this without you. I just love you very much. Yeah, I can't wait to get home and celebrate.
To my parents and the rest of the team, Teddy, Blake, Phil, everybody at home, I can't thank you guys enough. I feel like I've got the best support team that I could possibly have. Everybody does such a good job of working together. Everybody is so humble, and they just do a really good job. Thank you all very much, especially you guys at home.
To the agronomy team this week, this course was in great condition. This golf course played amazing. It was extremely healthy turf. It was a really tremendous week, so shout out to the grounds crew.
Also thank you so much to the R&A for putting on such a great event. You guys do such a good job of supporting the players so well. Especially as an American player coming over to a foreign country, the R&A does such a good job taking care of us, all the way from the locker room to the food and beverage to all the staff in the clubhouse, you guys just do a great job. Transportation as well, just making this week really easy and really special for all of us. Thank you all so much for such a really great week.
Sorry, I had to check my notes. (Laughter).
I guess finally, thank you so much to Royal Portrush and the town here. What an amazing week. I wish I could have seen more of the town, but it was a bit of a business week, just home and the golf course. Overall, it was a ton of fun.
Is that boos or cheers? (Laughter).
No, it was a tremendous week, and I look forward to hopefully bringing The Open back here. I look forward to seeing some of you at Birkdale next year. All the best. Thank you guys.