It doesn’t matter what your name is or how many strokes you have in your favour. It doesn’t matter if you’re the Number One in the world. It matters little or nothing that you start with a birdie on hole 2. It’s no use that your main rival starts with a bogey. All this is the same. Golf always manages to mess you up. Sooner or later, the fire will appear and whether you end up scorched and consumed in your ashes or fresh as a lettuce and without a hair out of place will depend on your abilities to put it out.
You never know where the fire may come from, but it always appears. For Scottie Scheffler, it came in the most unexpected way in the last round of the Tour Championship, the grand finale of the FedEx Cup. The accelerant was one of those shots that go around the world, that appear in more summaries than an albatross or a hole in one. Scheffler has hit a shank. Oh, my god. Yes, he has. Like any neighbour’s son. It was on hole 8, from the bunker, after trying to catch the green of this par 4 in one. Scottie’s face was pure perplexity. The leaves were already lit.
Trying to figure out where the error had come from and logically worried about what might happen from there, Scheffler’s third shot was very bad. An approach that didn’t have much was about five metres short of the flag. The par putt, of course, didn’t go in. A bogey that joined the one he had made on 7 after missing a short putt. In total, the fire of the leaves had already spread to some trees. The forest was in danger. The five strokes with which he started the day or the seven with which he stood after hole 2 were already little more than a vague memory.
Scheffler made it very clear this Sunday at East Lake that he is not one of those who burn in the fire. Quickly, after the bogey on 8, including the blunder, he took out the firefighter suit from the closet and got to work. No, he doesn’t burn. The fire was contained with a great shot on hole 9, par 3, one metre from the hole. Birdie. Shortly after, there were only some smouldering embers left after another trademark shot on 10, less than a metre from the flag. Birdie. In case there was any doubt, he finished putting it out with another birdie on 11, this time sinking a good putt of just over four metres. Finally, he declared it extinguished on hole 14, par 5, with a superb eagle, sinking a putt of just under five metres. Scheffler hoses at your service. 24 hours.
With that eagle, Scheffler reached the brutal record of -30, the winning result. Yes, true, he started the week with -10, but you have to make the other -20 with clean birdies. Imperial. Victory. Rarely has the FedEx Cup been more just than this year. It had to be Scheffler’s and Scottie insisted that it be so. Because nobody gave it to him. Collin Morikawa (-26) has given his soul to assault the fortress of the golfer residing in Dallas. He made -22 in four days. In third position finished Sahith Theegala (-24), with a partial of -21 in the week.
Scheffler ends the season with eight victories, the Masters, six wins on the PGA Tour and the gold medal at the Olympic Games. His total earnings in 2024 exceed 62 million dollars. Simply crazy.
