American Scottie Scheffler won yet again on Sunday at the Travelers to secure his sixth Tour win in his last ten starts. He beat good friend Tom Kim on the first playoff hole in an action-packed final round at TPC River Highlands.
The leaderboard was stacked following a wet weather weekend in the northeast. This meant preferred lies were in place for rounds three and four.
Tee times were moved up slightly because of the impending forecast on Sunday to try to finish the tournament on time.
An obvious result
Scottie Scheffler and Kim were paired alongside young superstar Akshay Bhatia in the final group. The chasing pack made their moves but eventually ran out of holes.
Embed from Getty ImagesKim made a clutch birdie on 18, while Scottie Scheffler could only muster a par, which meant a playoff was required. But this was not without extenuating drama, with protesters storming the 18th green before the final group putted out. The climate activists were swiftly detained, but not before etching orange paint onto the putting surface. Kim regained focus to drain in a 10-footer before they moved the hole location for the playoff.
This tournament has a recent history of playoffs, with Harris English and Kramer Hickok enduring an eight-hole sudden death before the former emerged as the victor in 2021. Scottie made a routine par while Kim was plugged into the bunker and could not get up and down. It is becoming rather repetitive rhetoric, and to no one’s surprise, Scottie Scheffler won again.
Embed from Getty ImagesScottie Scheffler: Breaking more records
With this win, the Texan becomes the first golfer since the great Arnold Palmer in 1962 to win six times in a PGA Tour season before the 1st of July. The golf media are running out of superlatives to describe Scottie Scheffler’s season. How many more will he win? He has won each of the last five signature events on the PGA Tour. But he only has one major this year, The Masters. Is this a disappointing season if he does not win at Troon next month?
His golf quality warrants another major, but winning majors isn’t that easy, as demonstrated by Rory McIlroy last week at Pinehurst. A second major in 2024 would cap off an astonishing year on the course for Scottie, coinciding with the birth of his first child. But, at the moment, we must revel in his greatness and his ability to win tournaments easily. For now, he is in a league of his own.