Scottie Scheffler ’s Open venture ended embarrassingly as the world-ranked No.1 golfer failed to hit past the women’s tee on the final hole.
Scheffler endured a frustrating Sunday at Royal Troon as he was unable to take advantage of his steady form over the previous days to mount a challenge for a third major title as he began the day on two-under-par, just two shots behind the overnight leader Billy Horschel .
Beginning round four two-under-par heading onto the ninth hole, Scheffler’s good work across the opening eight holes was undone as he double-bogeyed the 9th hole – after previously parring the hole on his three previous attempts in the earlier rounds. Scheffler was able to find one birdie on the 16th to bring his score to three-under where it began the day, but by that point he was out of the running for the Claret Jug.
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Taking to the final hole of the course, a frustrated Scheffler bowed out of the tournament with a whimper as he was only able to top his tee shot 150 yards on the final hole of the event. The PGA Tour star immediately knew he’d fluffed his strike as he dropped his club and began scratching his back upon seeing the ball fly flat and drift left.
The TV cameras initially had a tough time trying to locate the ball but it was eventually picked up the moment it landed in the majorly overgrown grass close to the women’s tee mark, needing to painfully zoom in to even spot where the ball had landed.
Scheffler’s woeful tee meant he double-bogeyed the 18th to finish the round one-over-par and take his competition total to one-under. Had the 28-year-old been able to even bogey the hole he would’ve finished in seventh. However, he tied seventh with Im Sung-jae and Jon Rahm, who finished round four two-under and three-under respectively.
The Masters champion’s disappointment was such that he is believed to have refused to speak to the media in the mixed zone following the conclusion of the tournament.
Xander Schauffele claimed victory as he won his second career major, adding The Open to his success in the PGA Championship in May. Schauffele finished round four six-under-par to claim victory nine-under, two shots ahead of Justin Rose and Horschel who tied for second.
Reflecting on his triumph, Schauffele stated that his ability to stay level-headed has been his secret to success in the greatest year of his career to date. "Sometimes things go your way, and sometimes they don't. When you're playing -- today I felt like I really controlled a lot of it,” he said. “I kind of grabbed onto it, and there was no chance I was going to let go of it. I was pretty aware of that and really wanted to make sure I did that.
"But for the most part, all those tough losses in the past or those moments where I let myself slip up and dream too early on that back nine, I was able to reel myself in today and make sure that didn't happen."
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