PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Ted Scott calls it his little caddie trick, one that he uses to keep the No. 1-ranked player in the world engaged. Not that Scottie Scheffler really needs it. But such a tactic is fun nonetheless and makes for some good banter during rounds.
The duo has a game in which they keep track of the number of times Scheffler holes out or chips in during the year. And once Scheffler gets to 10, his caddie bestows upon him a nice, little gift, one that both seem to take great pride in accomplishing.
The 92-yard, 56-degree sand wedge shot that Scheffler and Scott saw roll into the cup at the par-4 4th hole was the sixth time this year—the bet is 10—that Scheffler has done it, and he made sure to point it out to Scott as they celebrated in the early portion of the final round of the Players Championship on Sunday.
SCHEFFFFF! pic.twitter.com/A3iOOoqBNi
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 17, 2024
Never mind that the shot was the turning point of the tournament for Scheffler, one that helped propel him to a second straight victory on the PGA Tour, a defense of his tournament title, and the eighth win of his career, all in the past 26 months.
Scheffler followed with a birdie at the 5th hole, added two more on the front nine and finished with an 8-under-par 64 to blow past Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman to win the $25 million tournament and its $4.5 million first prize at TPC Sawgrass. It is the first time in the 50-year history of the tournament that a player has won in consecutive years.
MORE: Final results, payouts from the Players Championship
“When he holed out on 4, that’s always special,” Scott said. “And then you make a birdie on 5. And then you run it by after hitting the green on 9 and make it from 10 feet. Little weird things happen, and you start to think this could be our day, that this was a good day for us to play well enough to possibly win it. Anything could happen.”
And it did.
Unlike last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where Scheffler was in the last group with Shane Lowry and built a big back-nine lead before winning by five, he started the final round five strokes back. But his front-side 31 changed the storyline, and then it was a matter of a tense back nine in which he waited to see if anyone could tie him.
And all of this occurred despite a neck injury that was problematic enough on Friday that Scheffler needed medical attention on the course.
“I didn’t see him playing this weekend,” Scott said. “He couldn’t move.”
But he could still hit the ball. Perhaps it wasn’t to the ballstriking standard that Scheffler expects, but he still led the field in strokes-gained off the tee, strokes-gained tee to green and strokes-gained total. He was also sixth around the greens and seventh in approach. Throw in 37th in putting—which still was better than average—and Scheffler was holding the trophy.
“He’s such an athletic person,” said Scott, the longtime caddie for Bubba Watson (including two Masters victories) who began working for Scheffler in the fall of 2021 before he went on a run that has now seen him win the Masters and two Players Championships among his eight wins.
“He’s so connected to the target with his hands. He can get away with it. He was hitting one more club, slapping it around, finding a way. That seems to be what great players do. Even winning Bay Hill, he didn’t think he was swinging that well. He’s just a great ballstriker, period.”
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And you can’t discount his putting. Scheffler missed a 5-footer on the 13th hole Sunday that might have been costly, but it was the only time during the tournament he missed from inside that distance. And since switching to a mallet putter just before last week’s tournament, there’s been a new confidence level on the greens.
Statistically, Scheffler had a top-four-career putting week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. It was more of a modest putting effort this time but he needed just 25 putts during the final round. Work with putting coach Phil Kenyon has also helped.
“I don't feel like a ton has changed,” Scheffler said. “I feel like I'm much more free in what I'm doing. I think I'm much more engaged in the process of things. I put myself in position in Phoenix, and not being able to make the putts late on the back nine on Sunday—I had bogey, I think I had a three-putt there, I was in position to win that tournament, and I was very frustrated not to be able to get it done.
“But really Phil has done a really good job with me the last six months or so kind of keeping my head in the right frame of mind. We've been working really hard at it. Trying not to work too hard at times. It's really nice to see the fruits of all the work that we've put in, and it's exciting to be sitting up here again.”
Other prizes await. The Masters is just a few weeks away, and Scheffler is playing better than anyone.
And there, of course, is the undisclosed gift awaiting from Scott. Four more holeouts or chip-ins to go. And yet, it’s tough to imagine any could be bigger than the one he made Sunday.
