Any doubts the new Players champion is one of the very best players on the planet – not merely a guy riding a hot streak of form/putting – must now be dismissed as mere folly. We’re talking ‘real thing’ here folks. 

The first hint, of course, came as long ago as September 2021. At Whistling Straits on the final day of the Ryder Cup matches, Scheffler took on the best player (that week) on the European side, Jon Rahm, and offered the Spaniard his hand in commiseration as early as the 15th green.

Since that 4&3 victory, Scheffler has won six times on the PGA Tour, including the 2022 Masters, accumulated 14 other top-10s and deposited something in excess of US$24.5 million into his Texas bank account. Rahm has done quite nicely too over that same period. And so has Rory McIlroy. But no matter. The best and certainly most consistently excellent player in the world over the last 18 months has clearly been Scheffler.

All of which has culminated in the 2022 PGA Tour Player of the Year claiming the US$4.5 million cheque that goes to the winner of the so-called “fifth major.” It was well-earned too. Scheffler was the only man in the elite field who broke 70 on all four days. And with a final round of 69, the 26-year-old New Jersey native reached 17-under par for four circuits of the TPC Sawgrass layout, a 271 total that was five shots better than runner-up, Tyrrell Hatton. Norwegian Viktor Hovland was next, alongside course record holder, Tom Hoge, on ten-under-par.

Scottie Scheffler and caddie, Ted Scott, enjoy the 18th hole walk with a comfortable lead. PHOTO: Getty Images.

Sadly, neither of the two Australians in contention with 18 holes to play, could maintain their positions. Both shot over par. Min Woo Lee’s disappointing 76 saw him drop from second to T6 on the leaderboard. And Cam Davis ended up on the same score after a closing 74.

So, it was Scheffler’s day.

“I played really well the whole week, really solid,” he confirmed. “I had some times where I didn't feel like I was swinging my best, or playing at a hundred percent. But then I would wait and pick my moments. Fortunately, I got hot in spurts in each of my rounds, whether it was my back nine in the first round or 8 through 12 this afternoon. I found a way to choose my moments and get hot here and there.”

The final hurdle, of course, was the ever-treacherous tee-shot on the par-3 17th. Even there though, Scheffler got a little break. Standing on the 16th green, he was able to watch Tommy Fleetwood and Davis both find the water. It was clear how tricky the gusting breeze was making things. 

The realisation of his achievement hits Scheffler after he's signed his card. PHOTO: Getty Images.

“The wind was pretty much straight across,” Scheffler said. “It would kind of help, it would kind of hurt. It was bouncing back and forth. And when you have that much wind it's a really, really hard shot. Fortunately, I hit mine exactly how I wanted to. But I was still relieved when it hit the green. You’re not really in control of what the ball does up there. You can only hit the shot and hope for the best.”

Such typically modest utterings don’t actually do justice to how over-powering Scheffler’s play was. As a mark of how well he performed when the pressure to succeed was at its height, he was the only man in the final ten groups on the course able to break 70.

But it wasn’t all plain sailing. Not right away; the early signs hinted at stressful times ahead. After only three holes of the final round Lee had eliminated the two-shot overnight advantage held by the eventual champion. But the Western Australian’s water-strewn triple-bogey seven on the 4th brought that promising beginning to a swift and calamitous end. 

"Really, there is nothing remarkable about him, except how remarkable he is.” – Renowned swing coach, Denis Pugh. 

Thereafter, Scheffler’s advantage was never less than two shots. It was (yet another) impressive performance, one marked by his trademark composure (and, it must be said, excessively slow play). Then by a decisive run of five sub-par holes in succession from the 8th, where he chipped-in for an unlikely birdie. Hey, that’s exactly the sort of thing winners tend to do.

“The first thing I notice is what an athlete Scottie is,” says swing coach Denis Pugh, who works with former Open champion, Francesco Molinari. “I bet he was good at other sports in high school and college. He’s part of that new breed; he’s an athlete who plays golf. He seems very competitive too. His personality is one that means he is pretty comfortable being who he is. So tough situations on the course don’t scare him. Nor does the competition. Or the crowds. Or the expectations he may have. None of that. He’s a proper sportsman in that regard.

“In his swing, I hear a lot of people talking about his feet,” continued Pugh. “But as long as you are moving your weight around in the swing, it doesn’t have to be planted. There are different ways to use balance. So, I would look less at what appears strange and more at how he uses his lever system. He has a high arc and a wide arc. I’d look there for clues as to why he is so good and less at what might look, at first glance, a bit weird. Really, there is nothing remarkable about him, except how remarkable he is.”

Tyrrell Hatton plays a brilliant second shot from wide of the 18th fairway to set up a closing birdie and the best round of the day. PHOTO: Getty Images.

Still, for all his heroics, Scheffler wasn’t the best player in the field on what turned into a blustery Sunday afternoon in north-east Florida. That honour must go to Hatton, who had the consolation of earning $2.7million, the biggest cheque of his career.

Starting on five-under-par and in a tie for 26th place, the often-tempestuous Englishman accelerated through the field courtesy of a remarkable back nine of 29, which included as many as seven birdies. By the time he holed out for a fifth successive birdie on the 18th green (a feat achieved only twice before in Players Championship history) Hatton was round in 65 – by three shots the best of the day – and 12-under par, a total that stood up to all challenges. Except one of course. 

Talking afterwards, Hatton was understandably and unusually in fine fettle, his mood enhanced by the sensational 4-iron he struck from deep in the trees right of the 18th fairway, the ball pulling up no more than ten-feet from the cup. Impressive. But it was a shot he had hit before. And closer. One day earlier the two-time Ryder Cup player had left himself only an 18-inch tap-in to make birdie.

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“He’s getting worse,” was caddie Mick Donaghy’s tongue-in-cheek verdict. 

Still, for all that his temperamental reputation forever precedes him, Hatton has at least one redeeming quality – an endearing ability to laugh at himself and the obvious eccentricity of his on-course foibles. 

“It sounds horrible to say something positive, I guess, but this is one of my favourite golf courses,” he said with a big smile. “Although apart from this week, I haven't really done that well here in the past. There is a couple of tee-shots I struggle with more than other lads that have a more natural right-to-left ball-flight. But I think it's such a pretty golf course, visually on the eye. I mean aside from the 8th. We don't need 235-yard par-3s; that kind of ruins it a bit. I have to say something negative, obviously.”

The last word, however, must go to the man who, apart from anything else that went on here today, earned a return to the No.1 spot on the world ranking. Asked for how he would describe the last 18 months or so of his life, Scheffler didn’t hesitate:

“Fun.”