Pressing Issues

Scottie Scheffler has made a habit of closing from the front. With his victory at the PGA Championship this weekend, he’s now converted eight straight 54-hole leads – a run that includes an eight-under final round to win the 2025 CJ Bryan Nelson Cup just weeks ago.

So Scheffler winning from the lead is barely news. But this one felt different. Sunday at Quail Hollow was no coronation – it was a scrap, a dogfight. And for a while, it looked like it might just get away from him.

The world number one has gone toe-to-toe before, but this fight brought out something new in the already revered American. And always looking to improve, he’ll take more than a trophy away from it.

Setting The Tone

In many ways, it was remarkable enough that Scheffler took a three strokes advantage into the last day. He was -5 heading into the weekend: not out of contention, but hardly in it.

Three bogeys on Saturday left him at -6 with five holes to play, including the three hardest holes on the course.

The American then made the par four fourteenth look like a pitch and putt by hitting his tee shot to less than three feet and tapping in for eagle. As every all-time great does, he pounced on this momentum and went birdie, par, birdie, birdie down the stretch.

This left Scheffler at -11 and three strokes ahead of Alex Noren, ahead of the final day.

The Story Of Sunday

Having played the front nine in a birdie-free +2, the American looked a touch off his best. In the final round, he ranked in the top ten in just one of the five ‘strokes gained’ scoring categories. For the tournament overall, he was top ten in four of them.

Jon Rahm was in the form to exploit this chink in the normally impenetrable armour, and when he made birdie on the eleventh to get himself into a tie for the lead, it felt like momentum had shifted towards the charging Spaniard.

Scheffler was visibly off it: confused, and missing a few shots left in a particularly un-Scottie way.

At this point in the afternoon, many mortals would have approached the famously tricky back nine at Quail Hollow and wilted. There were just three holes on the back that had an under-par scoring average for the week. The last three – known as the ‘Green Mile’ – played over a stroke over par.

Having hit just four greens in regulation on the front nine and never having a birdie putt inside ten feet, Scheffler sprung to life when he most needed it and produced a birdie on each of holes ten, fourteen and fifteen, holing short putts for each of them.

During this time, Rahm was busy taking himself out of contention and the moments of tension and jeopardy were swiftly swept away by the North Carolina winds.

Scheffler then had a considerable advantage entering the Green Mile, and cruised to victory – just as everyone had expected him to before the round.

Having said that, it was definitely more of a fight than most people expected. The 28-year-old said as much: “I felt like this was as hard as I battled for a tournament in my career. It was a pretty challenging week.”

New Look Scottie

Funnily enough, the world number one is relentlessly impressive. He has dominated tournaments from start to finish in the past two years, but has also fought from the fringes of contention into pole position – think of his final round 62 at Paris 2024 to steal a gold medal from nowhere.

But Sunday was a blend of Scheffler that we haven’t seen before in a major. His scratchy front nine invited pressure and for a short while it looked as if it wasn’t his day, but to bounceback so immediately, and with such force, is a new quality, a new threat, and one that bodes well for June’s US Open at Oakmont Country Club.

If Sunday proved anything, it’s that Scottie doesn’t need his A‑game to bury the field. He is renowned for pouncing on momentum – so next month, he might just bring it.