– Scottie Scheffler (-15) has won for the fifth time this season. He has claimed the BMW Championship, the second playoff of the Fedex Cup, after signing off with a final card of 67 strokes, taking advantage, among other things, of a disastrous final day from the man who started as the clear leader, Robert MacIntyre (-13), who began with one mistake after another (three bogeys in the first five holes) and then was unable to fully recover, scoring his first and only birdie of the day on the 16th hole. Scheffler takes home another trophy, something that is not news, although this time he included some epic nuances in his performance that make the victory special.
– Because, despite everything, MacIntyre stood on the 17th tee, the intimidating, long, and thick final par 3 of the Caves Valley Golf Club, with real chances of victory, just one stroke behind Scottie, the leader. How was this possible? Very simple: thanks to a collapse as surprising as it was colossal from Scheffler on the greens. It all started on the 8th hole, where he missed a birdie chance from a metre and a half away. Well, it happens in the best of families. But then he missed another birdie putt on the 10th from two and a half metres; and another on the 12th from just over a metre, this one to save par; and yet another on the 14th, even shorter, also to save par. And it wasn’t just that he wasn’t sinking them, he was really hitting the ball without any determination, almost disoriented. The World Number One even looked dazed…
– The daze was short-lived, responding with a textbook birdie on the 15th (this time sinking a putt from just under two metres) and preparing us for the sublime moment of the day. On that 17th hole, where MacIntyre was still alive, the best player in the world holed a sensational chip-in for birdie from the rough, over twenty metres from the flag. The ball dropped into the cup on the last roll, sweetly, annihilating any chance for his rival and playing partner. Just when the collapse had reached its peak, on that 14th hole, missing that short par putt (note: he almost missed the return putt too), Scheffler regained his unstoppable, relentless form in a matter of minutes. No further questions, your honour.
– Let’s be clear: MacIntyre lost a splendid chance to defeat a legendary Number One. The Baltimore course offered no favours, quite the opposite, but with hindsight (it’s always easier with hindsight, it’s true), a round at par should have been enough to win. We will never know, however. Not at least with Scheffler in the contest, capable of anything, as has been seen.
– Finally, only Harry Hall (-8), the Englishman still vying for a spot on the European Ryder team, managed to get into the Tour Championship arriving in Baltimore outside the top thirty. He did so thanks to a notable sixth-place finish, at the expense of Lucas Glover. In the American circles, there is a certain inclination to create a problem for Luke Donald with Hall, but the continental captain actually has it very easy: if the Englishman stands out significantly again next week at East Lake, he can and should seriously consider taking him to Bethpage, whether or not the team suit measurements have been taken (don’t worry Harry, there’s always time for that), especially since Hall had signed up to play the British Masters next week, in case he didn’t make it to the Fedex Cup final, as an evident show of excellent attitude that captains highly value. In these cases, the cliché is usually accurate: Donald has a blessed problem with the emergence of players in great form.
