La Quinta, California – New Year, same Scotty Scheffler.
The world No. 1 likes to come to the California desert at the beginning of the season to take stock of his game and get into tournament shape. There wasn’t much wrong with American Express on Sunday.
Scheffler made birdies on his half of the holes, taking a lead after trailing by two shots early that extended to six shots late, before he closed with a 6-under 66 for a four-shot victory.
“There’s always a certain amount of rust when it comes to playing competitive golf,” Scheffler said. “You can simulate as much as possible at home, but you can only get in the heat of the moment when you’re posting scores and you’re in competition when you’re at a tournament. So it was nice to see the things I’ve been practicing and working on come to fruition.”
He made four birdies in a six-hole stretch on the front nine to topple the 18-year-old blade brown And rest areas.
Scheffler won for the 20th time on the PGA Tour in the past four years to earn lifetime membership. More indicative of his dominance in the game is winning nine of those 20 tournaments by four shots or more.
he also joined jack nicklaus And Tiger Woods As the only player to win 20 PGA Tour titles and four major titles before the age of 30.
“Pretty wild,” Scheffler said. “It’s a great start to my career. It’s special. I try not to think too much about that stuff. I was just trying to do the things I needed to do to get ready.”
The world No. 1 briefly shared the stage with Brown, who graduated from high school two weeks ago and finished tied for 17th at the Korn Ferry Tour event in the Bahamas that ended on Wednesday. He is the first player to play eight consecutive days in a PGA Tour-sanctioned competition.
Whether fatigue overcame him or simply the moment – he was trying to become the youngest PGA Tour winner in 95 years – it ended quickly.
Brown was one shot behind the 54-hole leader Si Woo Kim And one ahead of Scheffler heading to the tee on the par-3 fourth on the Stadium Course at PGA West. After five holes, Brown and Kim were five shots behind and Scheffler was putting it in overdrive.
“I know eight rounds sounds like a lot, but I was having a lot of fun,” he said. “You telling me I had to play in a PGA Tour event and playing with Scotty Scheffler and watching him win, that was crazy.
“I’ve got some things I need to sharpen up, and hopefully we’ll see if we can do what Scotty is doing.”
In the end it all seemed very routine. Scheffler rapped a par putt to finish at 27-under 261, put the golf ball in his pocket and smiled. It all seems very routine.
He has now won four of his last six PGA Tour starts and seven of his last 13 Tour starts. He has finished in the top 10 on tour 16 consecutive times, the longest such streak by any player since 1970.
“It’s like he never wants to rest,” said jason dayOne of four players to win the B flight by finishing second. “He always does his job, does whatever he needs to do to be able to prepare, and he’s always in the lead. And it’s a very difficult thing to see how many distractions there can be, especially at No. 1.”
Scheffler quickly took control after a birdie-bogey start. He hit an 8-iron to 2 feet on the par-3 fourth hole, smartly played the par-5 fifth with a shot out of the water and with a pitch-and-run he nearly holed out across the green for birdie. Wedges closed out the lead with two more birdies, followed by two more birdies to take the lead to four.
Brown’s chances seemed to end at one hole. He took an aggressive approach and pulled his tee shot into the water on the par-5 fifth. He had to fall in front of the tee boxes – he decided to do so in the dormant Bermuda rough rather than on the teeing grounds – and then when he got back into position hit a poor wedge that led to double bogey.
Brown went 11 holes without a birdie and had two bogeys late, leaving him with a score of 74. He fell to a tie for second at 18th, costing him a spot at Torrey Pines the following week.
But it was a great teacher as well as a good lesson.
“I would say one of the best things I learned today was how underrated Scottie Scheffler’s short game is,” Brown said. “To see it in person and see the trajectory and the spin, and see his control with his wedges and the short game. Obviously, his putting is crazy too. It was really cool to see. So I’m definitely going to work on that.”
The day ended with a 64, moving him up 18 places to the runner-up spot Ryan Gerrard (65), matt mccarty (68) and Andrew Putnam (68)
Kim, who often plays with Scheffler at Royal Oaks in Dallas, also lost his way on a hole. He was two shots behind on the par-5 eighth when he took two shots out of the greenside bunker, holed out and made double bogey. He missed a 3-foot par putt on the next hole. Kim saved a score of 72 with three birdies on the back nine to finish sixth.
Scheffler’s only major mistake was that when it wouldn’t have mattered, a tee shot on the par-3 17th went into the water known as “Alcatraz”, and by then he had plenty of cards to get out of jail. His double bogey kept the gap from getting larger against American Express’s strongest field in decades.
Scheffler is now taking a week off before closing out his West Coast tenure with three consecutive events, starting with the Phoenix Open where this amazing run began four years ago. He won his first PGA Tour title in a playoff. It hasn’t been that close lately.
Information from ESPN Research and The Associated Press was used in this report.
