One of the most impressive things about Scottie Scheffler is that he manages to compete even when he’s nowhere near his best, and that was very much the case at the FedEx St. Jude Championship last week.
Scheffler fired rounds of 67, 66, 65 and 67 to finish the FedEx St. Jude Championship at 15-under par, one shot adrift of Justin Rose and J.J. Spaun.
The 29-year-old had a great chance to win his 18th PGA Tour event on the final day at TPC Southwind, but he quite simply didn’t hole enough putts around the turn.
Scheffler equalled a 52-year PGA Tour record with his T-3 finish at the St. Jude – he now has 12 consecutive top-8 finishes under his belt.
Meanwhile, Rose looked fresh as a daisy coming down the stretch at the FedEx St.Jude, defying old father time in the process.
Before his final round got underway, Scheffler had Brad Payne fill in for Ted Scott, after his regular caddie had to return home to attend to a private family matter.
That cannot have helped the world number one, but it didn’t seem to faze him whatsoever. He struck the ball superbly well all day, and his 67 easily could have been a 64.
Why Scottie Scheffler failed to beat Justin Rose at the FedEx St. Jude
Smylie Kaufman always offers fantastic insight into the goings on during tournament weeks on the PGA Tour.
He played 93 PGA Tour events and won the 2015 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open before retiring to concentrate on a career in the media.
Kaufman spoke about the final round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship during his Smylie Show Podcast.
And the former PGA Tour player offered an explanation as to why Scheffler didn’t quite manage to get the job done in Memphis on Sunday.
He said: “I kinda want to talk a little bit more about Scottie’s front nine, and what he was accomplishing on the front. It was so good. He hit every single fairway on the front nine. The only missed shot he hit was a seven iron on the fifth hole right of the green, didn’t get it up and down. Other than that, it was virtually a flawless ball-striking performance on the front nine.
“He hit 50% of his fairways pretty much all week. He had started out the round hitting every single fairway until the 12th hole. He missed the 12th and 15th fairway, I believe that was all he missed.
“Absolutely put on a stripe show off the tee. He was giving himself good look after good look. He missed a six-footer for birdie on the sixth hole for birdie coming off of a bogey at the fifth, makes a great birdie at seven, misses a putt from inside 10 feet at the eighth and the ninth hole.
“So we’re talking about four strokes there. We talk about how Scottie didn’t get in this play-off, he had plenty of opportunities in that stretch of holes. I don’t think he was hitting necessarily bad putts, they weren’t gimmies. I think the putt he would want back is the one at six he missed.
“It just felt like he didn’t make enough of them.”
However, did Scheffler’s stats from the final round back up Kaufman’s theory?
Scottie Scheffler’s final round stats at the FedEx St. Jude
Scheffler’s tee-to-green game on Sunday was exceptional, especially on the front nine.
He made two poor swings in his round on the 12th and 15th holes but aside from those, he was imperious off the tee and with his irons.
Here are his stats from day four at TPC Southwind:
| Stats | Scheffler’s final round ranking |
| Strokes gained off the tee | 5 |
| Strokes gained approach | 17 |
| Strokes gained around the green | 10 |
| Strokes gained putting | 58 |
| Strokes gained total | T-9 |
We can clearly see from those numbers that Scheffler’s putting held him back during the final round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship, just like Kaufman suggested.
It’s hard to criticise the 29-year-old’s putting, though. He has improved in the strokes gained putting category from 162nd in 2023 and 77th in 2024 to 18th this year.
If he continues that improvement, he will be truly unstoppable in 2026.
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