The Players Championship delivered the PGA Tour’s greatest finish of the yr Sunday.
Getty Images
The early-week vibes from Ponte Vedra weren’t nice. The PGA Tour season wasn’t precisely off to a blistering begin, and its commissioner was taking part in protection. The Tour needed a particular Sunday on the Players Championship.
It might have simply gotten it.
Battered and bruised already by much more gamers, together with World No. 3 and the defending Masters Champion Jon Rahm, packing their baggage for LIV Golf, and challenged by questions surrounding its Signature Events, the Tour’s 2024 received off to a funky begin.
The Tour’s greatest remaining gamers? They weren’t winning. Wyndham Clark was the one participant ranked within the Top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking to win one of many first 9 occasions of the season. Meanwhile, gamers have been mentioning flaws within the Tour’s new designated occasion mannequin.
When the Tour performed host to its flagship occasion at TPC Sawgrass this week, gamers, followers and the media alike had extra questions than Commissioner Jay Monahan was prepared to reply.
How have been the negotiations with the Saudi PIF for an funding that was alleged to occur three months in the past? Will LIV gamers be let again on the PGA Tour? Have board members referred to as on you to resign?
Player belief of their embattled chief was clearly eroding.
Then the match started and extra controversy ensued. Rory McIlroy, the face of the Tour and its most recognizable participant, was on the heart of a guidelines kerfuffle that dominated headlines for 3 days.
The sport’s prime participant, Scottie Scheffler, was in rivalry by way of 36 holes, however coping with a neck harm that threatened to take him out of the occasion.
Tour Confidential: Scheffler’s epic Players comeback, ‘tricky’ drops, Jay Monahan speaks
GOLF Editors
But then got here Sunday, and…
Salvation! With Scheffler and a number of the Tour’s brightest stars delivering a finish for the ages.
From the start, it was destined to be a star-studded closing spherical with World No. 6 Xander Schauffele main reigning U.S. Open winner Clark by a stroke. Another 2023 main winner, Brian Harman, was a shot additional again in third, and the 2022 U.S. Open winner, Matt Fitzpatrick was in a tie for fourth.
A distant 5 again was Scheffler, final week’s winner, who was nonetheless coping with a neck harm, sporting two strips of kinesiology tape beneath his shirt.
The World No. 1 began his closing spherical slowly, parring the primary three holes, falling six again of Schauffele. Then he discovered a spark when he spun his strategy from the left and into the outlet for an eagle. He then made 5 extra birdies to surge into a share of the lead, after which one again of Schauffele by the sixteenth gap.
Scheffler received up and down from one of many small greenside pot bunkers for birdie to regain a share of the lead with Schauffele, however that set of a chain of occasions resulting in golf’s greatest finish of the yr.
At that very same second, Schauffele and Clark had each missed the 14th inexperienced, Clark within the left bunker and Schauffele within the heavy tough and mounding proper. Both of them barely received their thirds on the inexperienced and whereas they each gave their par efforts a scare, neither fell. Schauffele’s bogey gave Scheffler the outright lead at 20 beneath and Clark drifted three again.
Things didn’t get any higher for Schauffele on 15 as he blocked his drive proper, into the golf green bunker. He managed to offer himself a nine-footer for par, however he did not convert it and fell two again.
That left Harman as Scheffler’s closest pursuer at 19 beneath after a birdie on 15.
Meanwhile, Scheffler was on the iconic island inexperienced par-3 seventeenth. The conventional final-round pin location is all the best way on the precise, simply previous the lone bunker in entrance of the inexperienced.
Scheffler didn’t even problem it, taking part in towards the center of the inexperienced, however leaving himself 48 toes away from the outlet. But the defending champion deftly navigated the slope of the island inexperienced and curled his birdie attempt inside a foot for the routine 3.
Scottie Scheffler is golf’s greatest participant. Maybe its most charming, too
Michael Bamberger
Harman was two teams again on 16, maybe TPC Sawgrass’ final true birdie alternative. The left-hander merely needed to seek out the golf green on the 534-yard par-5, however he pushed the tee shot and located the pine straw left of the golf green. From there he selected to not problem the water proper of the inexperienced and as a substitute laid effectively again to 156 yards for his third. Only one participant had a longer third shot on 16 Sunday then Harman.
The conservative technique didn’t repay. Harman’s third didn’t problem the again left pin and left him 50 toes for birdie. He two-putted for a disappointing par.
Schauffele and Clark had extra success, each discovering the golf green after which the inexperienced on the par-5 in two that means Schauffele had a probability to tie and Clark a probability to get one again. Just one participant had a shorter eagle try all day then Clark’s 15-footer, however neither transformed. Schauffele was again at 19 beneath with Clark at 18 beneath as they headed for 17.
The closing group had one selection: tackle the water hit a wedge simply left of the flag and use the slop to carry their balls again to the pin. The right-hole location is historically the toughest on 17 and this yr solely three gamers made birdie all day earlier than the ultimate group.
Clark was first to play, recollections recent of the day prior when he laid the sod over his strategy and watched his ball dive into the pond 20 yards wanting the inexperienced.
Sunday’s was a lot better. He performed the shot completely and watched as it rolled right down to inside 5 toes.
Xander Schauffele’s 6-word phrase sums up Players heartbreak
Dylan Dethier
Schauffele matched, together with his strategy additionally taking the slope and stopping simply inside seven toes. His putt was to tie. Clark’s was to get inside a stroke.
But Schauffele pulled the putt and it by no means touched the cup.
“It’s such a small stroke with some wind, and I felt like I started it a little bit left,” he stated afterward. “I felt like I had a good read. I told Austin I felt it started a little bit left of my line. Just a poor execution.”
Not a good visible for Clark to see, however he poured within the birdie putt anyway. Clark, Schauffele and Harman have been all tied, one shot again of Scheffler, needing birdie on 18 to power a playoff.
Harman was first to attempt, lacking his birdie putt from the entrance fringe of the inexperienced.
Then the ultimate group got here down the 18th, Schauffele from proper pine straw, and Clark from the golf green.
Schauffele might solely muster a shot that landed quick and launched 60 toes away from the outlet. He did effectively to get his putt inside three toes, however that left Clark because the final man standing between Scheffler and the trophy.
His putt was similar to Harman’s a group earlier, above the outlet from the entrance proper a part of the inexperienced. He gave it a roll. It was monitoring. It caught the lip. It spun out.
“I don’t know how that putt doesn’t go in,” Clark stated. “It was kind of right center with like a foot to go, and I knew it was going to keep breaking, but it had speed and I thought it was going to good inside left, and even when it kind of lipped, I thought it would lip in. I’m pretty gutted it didn’t go in.”
Scheffler had gained, and whereas there was no thrilling make on the 72nd gap, a vicious lip-out to power a playoff proved simply as dramatic.
The Tour’s most proficient star had gained the occasion it desperately needed him to.
Source link
