Scottie Scheffler (-31) has executed a rarely seen massacre by winning the CJ Cup Byron Nelson with a final score of 253 strokes (final card of 63), the lowest record in PGA Tour history in a 72-hole tournament, matching the mark already held by Justin Thomas (Sony Open 2017) and Ludvig Aberg (RSM Classic 2023).
These feats are not planned. They emerge imposingly, like the boiling columns of a geyser. But his return to the victorious path has happened as it perfectly could, in a wild and majestic manner, for we truly find ourselves before a legendary phenomenon. And furthermore, as if that weren’t enough, the success has arrived laden with enormous symbolic value, since Scheffler has won on his home turf and in the tournament that first showcased him to the world 11 years ago, when he was just a youngster.
He may have gone ‘too long’ without winning (just a few months, to be honest), much to the dismay of his admirers and the somewhat morbid delight of those who still resist surrendering to him due to his lack of grace and charisma; but he was going to make it up to all of them somehow.
This circumspect World Number One does not waste time on the tasks typical of an influencer. He neither likes nor understands it as a task his profession demands. He doesn’t embellish himself outside the ropes. He doesn’t provoke or usually create debates, beyond the strictly sporting: whether he will break a record, whether he will continue stringing together major achievements… And these kinds of trivialities. He fist-bumps mainly with children, and the size of his ego, ultimately, is just right and natural. He is not particularly friendly, but he is cordial, polite, and, at times, much more interesting in his discourse, in his appearances, than he seems. He neither opines nor dissects on social media, nor, for now, carries any banner other than that of birdies. Time will tell. Or not. His legacy is what it is to date, and there are those who find it more than sufficient and those who, moreover, need to examine and approve it on a catwalk.
Scottie started this Sunday with an eight-stroke lead and could only lose the tournament with a combination of two factors: on one hand, the furious and sustained attack of one of his immediate pursuers (immediate, so to speak), and on the other, that the Texan had a mediocre, if not poor, day. The first factor occurred, embodied in the figure of his playing partner, Erik Van Rooyen (-23), who signed an excellent card of 63 strokes; but the second did not happen at all: Scheffler dispatched the first nine holes of the TPC Craig Ranch with a six-under-par and only a couple of late errors on holes 17 (bogey on this par 3) and 18 (par on the last par 5 of the course), with everything absolutely decided, kept him from the historic stroke record, from that figure of 252, or perhaps less, which he truly had in his grasp.
Scheffler has dominated in almost every area. To put a ‘but’: if he had shone this week in recoveries around the green (‘only’ ranking 24th in the scrambling statistics), as he usually does, he could have shattered all records.
Jordan Spieth (-19) also delivered a great score (62), the best of the day, coming well ahead of the World Number One and the hundreds, thousands, of fans who accompanied him, enjoying each of his shots without fanfare, just enjoying. In some way, Spieth is hastily preparing the ground for his unlikely assault on the Grand Slam Career club, which McIlroy has just joined. As is well known, to do so, he needs to win the imminent PGA Championship, the second Major of the year, which is just around the corner. The problem is not so much confirming (for example, next week at the Truist Championship) the evolution of his game. The serious problem for Spieth and any contender for victory at the PGA is Scheffler. He probably already was. Today, much more so. Unless Phil Mickelson, of course, decides otherwise between jokes and truths.
