Scottie Scheffler, having tapped in for par at the final hole at Royal Portrush, ambled his way to caddie Ted Scott for an embrace. It was the calm reaction of an athlete who had been here and done this before, one who had few mountains left to climb.
Then came the bigger celebration: Scheffler raised both fists, tossed his hat in the air and found his wife and 1-year-old son for another jubilant post-round reunion.
Scheffler captured his fourth major and his first Open Championship by completing a dominant week with a 3-under-par 68 to win by four shots on Sunday in Portrush, Northern Ireland.
The best golfer in the world since 2022, Scheffler notched his 17th career PGA Tour victory and his fourth since May, a run that included the PGA Championship. Boosted by a 64 on Friday, Scheffler finished all four days in the 60s to post a 17-under 267.
“I feel like I’ve got the best support team that I could possibly have,” Scheffler said after thanking his family during the Claret Jug presentation. “Everybody does such a good job of working together. Everybody is so humble, and they just do a really good job.”
Scheffler, 29, joined the likes of Jordan Spieth and Phil Mickelson as players one leg away from the career Grand Slam. Like Mickelson, Scheffler is only missing the U.S. Open.
What’s more, it took 1,197 days for Scheffler to get from his first major win to his fourth — the exact same length of time as it took Tiger Woods. Scheffler’s dominance continues to draw comparisons to Woods’, but his mentality couldn’t be more different.
“I’m not motivated by winning championships,” Scheffler said. “I don’t look at the beginning of the year and just say, ‘Hey, I want to win X amount of tournaments, I want to win whatever it is.’ I don’t do that. I have dreams and aspirations that I think about, but at the end of the day, when I wake up to practice, I feel like what motivates me is just getting out and getting to live out my dream. I get to play professional golf, and I feel like I’m called to do it to the best of my ability.”
Harris English won the race for second place, recording an eagle and back-to-back birdies over his last seven holes to shoot 66. Chris Gotterup — who won the Scottish Open last week just to get into the field at Royal Portrush — placed third at 12 under after a 67.
Wyndham Clark made eight birdies en route to a 65 to climb to 11 under, tied for fourth with England’s Matt Fitzpatrick (69) and China’s Haotong Li (70). Clark’s finish was similar to that of Bryson DeChambeau, whose bogey-free 64 early in the day boosted him to 9 under.
Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, saluted the Northern Ireland crowds singing his name as he walked down the 18th fairway. A double bogey at No. 10 stymied any chance he had of pursuing Scheffler, but McIlroy shot 69 and tied Xander Schauffele (68) and Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre (67) at 10 under.
“I tried as best as I could to keep my emotions in check, especially walking up the last there and that reception,” McIlroy said. “Yeah, look, it’s been an awesome week. I’ve gotten everything I wanted out of this week apart from a Claret Jug, and that’s just because one person was just a little bit better than the rest of us.
“I feel so thankful and just so lucky that I get to do this, I get to do this in front of this crowd.”
Scheffler set the tone for the day at the first hole. He missed the fairway, continuing a mediocre week with his driver, but his approach from the rough caught a ridge on the green and trickled down to the cup for a 16-inch birdie tap.
Four holes into his round, Scheffler had grown the lead to an insurmountable seven strokes. Playing partner Li had birdied No. 1 but bogeyed Nos. 2 and 4 while Scheffler birdied again and the rest of the field seemed stuck in neutral behind them.
Scheffler’s misfire at the par-4 eighth kept him from running away with the Claret Jug too soon. His first attempt to get out of a fairway bunker caught the top lip and stayed in. He needed four shots to reach the green and two-putted for double bogey, dropping to 15 under.
Around that time, Gotterup made his third birdie of the day to move to 11 under. But Scheffler immediately bounced back with a 5-foot birdie putt at No. 9. He added a birdie at No. 12 and protected the lead with pars the rest of the way.
Li, the first man from China to play in the final Sunday pairing at a major, finished with six birdies and three bogeys. He’d totaled just three bogeys Thursday through Saturday.
Li, who also placed third at the 2017 Open, said it was surprisingly calm to play with Scheffler and revealed what the Texan said to him that had him cracking up on camera during the round.
“I just said, ‘Is there any time I can practice with you when I go to the PGA Tour?’ and he said yes,” Li explained. “But I said, ‘When I text you, you better reply to me,’ and he goes, ‘Haotong Who?’ That was actually funny. Just a lovely guy to play with.”
English, a five-time PGA Tour winner from Georgia, wrapped up his best major championship season ever. He tied for 12th at the Masters and tied for second at the PGA Championship.
“Losing to Scottie twice in two majors — the only guy to beat me at the PGA and this week — I’m playing some good golf. Just need to clean it up a little bit,” English said.
“My two goals this year were to make it to the Tour Championship and make that Ryder Cup team, and hopefully I’ve moved myself a little bit closer to that.”
Scheffler said during the trophy presentation that he understood he was not the fan favorite in Northern Ireland.
“To be honest with you, walking up 18, I didn’t really know if I was going to get that much support from the crowd. The crowd, I think, wanted somebody else to win this week, and I kind of got to play spoiler a little bit, which was fun as well.
“It really was, it was a great reception. I heard a lot of the fans supporting me out there today. It was a really cool environment to be able to play in.”
–Field Level Media
