Scottie Scheffler overcame a neck problem and a five-stroke deficit to win by one on Sunday, defeating The Players in dramatic fashion.
The staff at Playing Through had no idea how things would turn out, but they chose Scheffler again as The Players Champion, making him the first player in the tournament’s illustrious history to win back-to-back titles.
As a staff writer jack milco I wrote this in advance of The Players.
Scottie Scheffler is playing in a league of his own, so I can’t compete against him. He leads the tour in scoring average, overall strokes gained and strokes gained off the tee. He hits 78 percent of regulation greens, which ranks first on the PGA Tour.
His recent play has resembled Tiger Woods in his prime, and Scheffler will accomplish something this week that even Woods hasn’t. It’s a reproduction at TPC Sawgrass.
Last year, Schaeffler posted a whopping 17.274 total strokes, but only 0.107 of those strokes hit the green. At the time, he was playing with a blade putter, but Scheffler now has a new mallet putter that he goes one-on-one with.
The 2022 Masters champion ranked fifth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week with a 4.347 stroke on the green. With his excellent play from tee to green, it’s no wonder he won convincingly.
So I hope his hot putter continues to flex its muscles at TPC Sawgrass, where Scheffler becomes the first player to win back-to-back Players Championships.
Added savannah lee richardsonhe also chose Scheffler as the winner:
I think Scheffler has entered his own league among PGA Tour legends with back-to-back appearances at TPC Sawgrass. Now that he’s got a high-profile putter, things might get ugly for the rest of the field.
“I found a putter that lines up really well,” Scheffler explained Tuesday. “I didn’t try to hit it perfectly every time, and I didn’t use it for any purpose other than to help line up.”
Scheffler also took the line off the ball prior to last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, which also paid dividends.
“It’s much easier to say, ‘It doesn’t really matter if I miss or I make, but at the end of the day, it’s very important to me whether that putt goes in or doesn’t go in,'” Scheffler added. . “But it’s about sticking to your process and controlling what you can control. It’s about having a good attitude and hitting good putts, and not using the line helped a lot in that regard.”
Predicting the winner of a golf tournament is nearly impossible, but two members of the team accurately chose Scheffler as the winner.
The Florida Swing continues this week with the Valspar Championship, but who do you think will win? Mr. Scheffler will not be participating, so someone else will appear in the winner’s circle on Sunday night.
But will it be Justin Thomas or Jordan Spieth? Or maybe we’ll see another first-time PGA Tour winner.
You can check out Playing Through’s complete betting preview for the Valspar Championship here.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
