PONTE VEDRA BEACH (Florida Sports Wire) – Scottie Scheffler fired a final round 64 in The Players Championship and Scheffler became the first player to successfully retain the title.
Brian Harman, the Open champion, came up just short after his 17 footer for birdie on the 18th failed to drop. A 68 for 269, one shot short of Scheffler.
Wyndham Clark, the US Open champion, who had birdied 16 and 17 to get back into the mix, hunted the 18th in search of a birdie to force a playoff.
“I put up the good fight for four days, did a lot of good things and delighted to come out on top,” said Scheffler, who added $4.5 million to his season’s financial haul.
Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy finished for tied-19th but their shared placings were achieved in quite different manners.
For Lowry, who’d finished fourth and third in the Cognizant Classic and the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a final round 66 for nine-under-par 279 again demonstrated just how comfortable he is in his own skin as he improved his position on the FedEx Cup standings from 30th to 25th.
Lowry’s round threatened for a time to be even better, promising something truly special: he had five birdies on the front nine – on the first, second, fourth, seventh and ninth holes – to turn in 31 and added another birdie after reaching the green on the Par 5 11th in two, only to bogey the 12th and 15th. However, he responded brilliantly on the final run-in with further birdies on the 16th and 17th.
In McIlroy’s case, a closing round 72 – five birdies, five bogeys – for 279 provided as many questions as answers as to the state of his game as the Masters edges ever nearer to that date circled in his calendar. He had 26 birdies, more than anyone, but was undone by too many mistakes.
McIlroy, who is tinkering with his swing, said of his first top-20 finish on the PGA Tour this year: “I think overall I probably made a little bit of progress from this time last Sunday at the Arnold Palmer, so, yeah, it’s there. I think, after the first round my expectations sort of went sky high because I was like, ‘oh, I think I’ve figured it out’. Then the last three days were a little bit more of a struggle.”
He added: “But I think I’m headed in the right direction. I’ve definitely straightened out a few of the iron shots, which was a big key for me coming into this week. I made enough birdies, it’s just a matter of getting rid of the bad stuff.”
