While the PGA Tour may refer to Scottie Scheffler as a seven-time winner this past season, the world number one will tell you that he has actually won on eight occasions in 2024.
Perhaps the most unique victory of Scottie Scheffler‘s season came just outside Paris, as he produced a stunning 62 on Sunday at Le Golf National to win the Olympic gold medal ahead of Tommy Fleetwood and Hideki Matsuyama.
There was a moment during the final round where fans would have been forgiven for writing Scheffler’s chances of gold off entirely, with Jon Rahm leading the field by four at one stage on the back nine. However, Rahm’s challenge dramatically fell apart.
Scheffler matched the course record on his way to putting himself atop the podium, with four straight birdies coming before the 18th at the course which also hosted the 2018 Ryder Cup. And it turns out that the 28-year-old found a groove which prompted him to even ignore his caddie at one stage.
Scottie Scheffler ignored Ted Scott at one stage during the Olympics final round
Whenever Scheffler has been asked about Ted Scott, he has needed little encouragement to give him much of the credit for the success that they have enjoyed together. But speaking on Subpar about that Sunday in France, Scott suggested that there was one moment where Scheffler decided to completely ignore his advice.
“My favourite part of that day was, we get to 15 and he’s got a tough little pin, over water. The safe thing to do is to fly it to the pin and putt back to it. Not Scottie Scheffler, he bounces it in there a foot because he’s so good at distance control, taps that in,” he said.
“Now we get to 16 and it’s over water if you go at the pin. You can go left and have a safety measure. And I’m looking at the wind and it’s like we need a little bit of help with our nine iron, and I’m kind of going, man, the wind’s helping, it’s not, it’s helping, it’s not. It’s kind of teetering back and forth, and so I said, hey, right at that security guard, 15 feet left of the pin.
“He goes, ‘okay’, and he hits it and it lands a foot from the pin and he walks over with this crazy, psycho look on his face, and he goes, ‘you didn’t really think I was going to take it at the security guard, did you?’ And I said, ‘well, a caddie can dream’. That’s when I knew he was in it, he’s hunting down the pins man.”
One of Scheffler’s best rounds all year
That Sunday was arguably one of the best rounds of Scheffler’s season, as he seemed to have almost no chance at all of winning at one stage. Of course, Rahm’s collapse played a key role, but there were also a number of players ready to take advantage.
Jordan Spieth lauded what Scheffler did on that back nine on Sunday, with Spieth knowing all too well how difficult those holes after the turn and coming down the stretch can be. To shoot 29 under that pressure is truly remarkable.
Perhaps it would be fair to say that even Scott did not see that level of brilliance coming on that day.
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