PGA Tour: Scottie Scheffler wins 2023 Players Championship

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Scottie Scheffler took at the horrifying TPC Sawgrass as though he was once taking part in on my own. And by the point he were given performed with a masterful efficiency Sunday in The Players Championship, that is about the way it appeared.

Scheffler ran off 5 instantly birdies in the midst of his spherical, constructed a six-shot lead and left all of the drama to everybody else on his technique to a 3-under 69 to win the richest prize at the PGA Tour by way of 5 pictures.

The victory was once price $4.5 million and despatched Scheffler again to No. 1 on this planet for the second one time this 12 months. He now has six victories in his remaining 27 begins at the PGA Tour, together with the 4 wins he had remaining 12 months culminated by way of his Masters identify.

When he poured in a 20-foot par putt at the ultimate hollow, Scheffler had the biggest margin of victory in The Players since Stephen Ames gained by way of six in 2006.

“I got hot in the middle of the round and tried to put things away as quickly as I can,” Scheffler stated. “Gosh, it’s fun.”

And then the birthday celebration was once on along with his spouse, oldsters, sister and 87-year-old grandmother, who stored tempo with him for such a lot of the day.

That’s one thing the most powerful box of the 12 months could not do.

Tyrrell Hatton birdied his remaining 5 holes for a 65, completing when Scheffler was once making the flip. Viktor Hovland (68) and Tom Hoge (70) had been seven pictures at the back of in a tie for 3rd, each and every making just about $1.5 million from the $25 million handbag.

Scheffler, who completed at 17-under 271, was simplest the 3rd participant to win on the TPC Sawgrass with all 4 rounds within the 60s.

Min Woo Lee of Australia, making his Players Championship debut, in short was once tied for the lead however completed with a 76.

Lee made one too many blunders, now not that it will have modified anything else the way in which Scheffler lit up the TPC Sawgrass. One of them got here at the par-4 fourth, when Lee was once tied for the lead. He chipped out of the tough simplest to have his 3rd shot spin again into the water, resulting in a triple bogey.

By the time he recovered, Scheffler was once racing away.

It began when Scheffler chipped in from the collar of a bunker at the par-3 8th, and he closed out the entrance 9 with an competitive play at the par-5 9th that arrange a chip-and-a-putt birdie.

Hatton teed off two hours forward of Scheffler, and he capped off his last run of 5 instantly birdies as Scheffler headed for the again 9. Hatton, the primary participant to shoot 29 at the again 9 at Sawgrass on a Sunday, posed at 12-under 276.

The wind was once gusting just about 30 mph, which simplest provides to the difficulty in this path. Scheffler stayed competitive, even though, holing an 18-foot birdie at the tenth, two-putting from 70 toes at the par-5 eleventh and taking at the reachable par-4 twelfth with a 3-wood to pin top good of the golf green. That arrange his 5th instantly birdie, and a six-shot lead.

For the general two hours, it was once a cash seize for everybody else — and a few wasted money for many who fell sufferer to the wind and water and the tough Players Stadium Course.

Hatton, who began the general spherical 9 pictures at the back of, completed off his 5 instantly birdies with a 4-iron out of the pine straw and across the timber to twenty toes.

He gained $2,725,000 — simply over $1 million greater than his Bay Hill victory in 2020.

Hideki Matsuyama was once inside of one shot — this was once ahead of Scheffler went on his birdie run — simplest to take double bogey at the 14th, fail to birdie the par-5 sixteenth and bogey the 18th. He was once 7 below for the spherical via 13 holes and needed to accept a 68.

The greatest meltdown belonged to PGA Tour rookie Taylor Montgomery, who was once tied for fourth till a bogey at the fifteenth, a double bogey on No. 16 (with out hitting within the water) and two balls within the water at the seventeenth — a complete shot and a chip — for a quintuple-bogey 7.

He dropped 40 spots at the leaderboard, and at No. 55 on this planet, that stored him from cracking the highest 50 within the score and most probably securing a place within the Masters.

Ultimately, even though, this was once a one-man display.

Scheffler has been profitable in bunches since he was once a junior superstar in Dallas, and as soon as he were given going at the greatest degree, he hasn’t in reality stopped. This was once his 6th win within the remaining 13 months, they all in opposition to one of the most powerful fields in golfing.

The $4.5 million driven his season general to over $10.4 million — the primary main remains to be a month away — and taken his general to $24.5 million within the remaining two seasons.

And that “set of rules” that Scheffler known as the Official World Golf Ranking now has him at No. 1, and it is difficult to discuss.

“He’s in a good position to be able to continue to do this a while,” Jordan Spieth stated.