ORLANDO – Meredith Scheffler called her husband Scottie a fighter.
“I mean, did you watch today, I guess?” she said. “That was a really good example.”
She remembers going to the Scheffler house when they were high-school sweethearts and watching three-hour long games of Scrabble.
“If he lost, he wanted to play again and if I lost I wanted to play again,” said Scheffler’s mom, Diane.
He needed to be tough this weekend as a U.S. Open broke out a few months early at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club and Lodge.
“This course is a total beat-down trying to play,” Scheffler said.
On another warm, sunny day that baked greens to a yellowish shade of split pea soup, scores soared in a frisky, fickle wind that puffed about the course, nudging golf balls in various directions. Only four of 77 players managed to break par in the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational while six signed for 80 or higher. The field combined to shoot 266-over par on Sunday for the highest scoring average in a round (75.5) at this event since 1981. It also marked the first single-digit under-par winner on the Tour since Jon Rahm at the 2021 U.S. Open in June. Rory McIlroy, who struggled to shoot a pair of 76s on the weekend, summed up the feelings of many.
“I feel punch drunk, to be honest,” McIlroy said. “It’s frustrating. It’s hard to keep your patience out there.”
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The player who did it best was none other than Scheffler, who shot even-par 72 for a total of 5-under 283, and one stroke better than Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton and Billy Horschel.
Scheffler, the winner of the Arnold Palmer Award as the PGA Tour’s Rookie of the Year in 2020, won at Arnie’s Place for the second time in his past three tournaments and the champion’s alpaca red sweater fit him nicely. It took a while to notch the first win, but hardly any time at all to validate.
Scheffler opened with rounds of 70-73 before shooting one of the rounds of the tournament on Saturday, a 4-under 68 that included three birdies and an eagle on the inward nine.
“After the way yesterday went, I thought they’d take it a little bit easier on the golf course, but the setup was harder today than it was yesterday, which surprised me a little bit,” Scheffler said.
Scottie Scheffler won today despite hitting only 5 fairways and 9 GIR.
Last player to win on PGA Tour with a final round hitting 5 or fewer fairways, 9 or fewer greens in regulation:
Tiger Woods, 2013 Farmers Insurance Open
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) March 6, 2022
In the final round, Scheffler, 25, overcame a sluggish start with bogeys on two of his first three holes and missed a 5-foot par putt at nine to make the turn one stroke behind Hovland. But as others faltered in the howling wind, Scheffler didn’t make another bogey. He tacked on a birdie at the par-5 12th to reach 5 under and made pars all the way to the house, including a 69-foot two putt at the last. It was a triumph of will power as much as athletic skill.
Gary Woodland showed how quickly fortunes could change. The 2019 U.S. Open champion drilled his second at the par-5 16th to 24 feet and canned the putt for eagle to seize the lead for the first time all week at 6 under. But one hole later, Woodland caught the front greenside bunker and failed to escape on his first attempt.
“I tried to hit a cut in there and just got eaten up by the wind,” Woodland explained. “A little unfortunate with the lie. The lie came out of the pitch mark, but it was still plugged a little bit. So I tried to chunk it, and I chunked it, chunked it too much.”
He missed a 5-foot bogey putt and just as quickly as he had assumed the lead, it was gone. Then he made bogey at the last to close in 73 at 3-under 285 and finish T-5 with Chris Kirk, who earned a berth in the 150th British Open along with Talor Gooch, who finished tied for seventh after finishing in a tie for seventh place, for being the top finishers that weren’t already qualified for the final men’s major of the year at St. Andrews.
Hovland pinballed in and out of the lead over the weekend. Trailing by one to start the day, he stiffed his tee shot at the par-3 seventh and made birdie to take the lead. As further proof of the carnage going on all over Bay Hill on Sunday, Hovland made bogey at the next two holes and still held the lead at the turn. He was tied with Scheffler at 5 under after a birdie at 16, but failed to get up and down from the bunker at 17 — he was 3 of 13 in bunker saves for the week — and his 17-foot birdie putt at 18 came up short.
“I’m playing some great golf, but this one stings,” Hovland said. “My last couple wins, I felt like it kind of came out of nowhere. This one was more like I felt like I should have won. Those sting a little bit.”
Horschel, the 54-hole co-leader, played his first 10 holes in 5 over but made two birdies and had a 33-foot putt at the last to force a playoff but it was not to be.
“I don’t give up,” Horschel said. “I’ll go down in flames before I tap out.”
Scheffler, who moved to a career-best No. 5 in the Official World Golf Ranking, handled the imposing sequence of finishing holes that test not only the skills but the nerves of a player better than anyone else.
“I didn’t make any mistakes on the back nine,” he said. “I would say that’s probably really where I credit the win.”
And which of his two wins was more satisfying? Scheffler paused briefly and said, “Winning is pretty fun regardless. I’m not going to choose favorites.”
Spoken like a true fighter.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism