After 9 birdies, 0 birdies and a recheck, Scottie Scheffler wins the Hero

Scottie Scheffler wins. Copy and paste. Rinse and repeat. If you were in a rush for the holidays, missed the broadcast and are wondering what happened, know that it was a bit of a replay. This year’s winner of the Arnold Palmer Championship, The Players Championship, The Masters, The RBC Legacy, The Memorial, The Travelers, The Olympics and The Tour Championship – draw – is the winner of Hero World Championship.

It was a show, too, during Sunday’s final round at Albany Golf Course. There was a bit of everything. Do you like precision? Scheffler was correct. He hit 17 of 18 greens. Do you like creativity? Scheffler was creative. A low-flying stinger on the par-5 9th avoided trouble, leading to birdie. Do you like invention? Scheffler was inventive. His new hire claws grip likely to stick around.

There was also a rally. Scheffler started the final round with a shot against the leader Justin Thomasbut three holes and two birdies later, he was leading for good. From there, he birdied 4, 9, 10, 13, 14, 16 and 18 — a total of nine birdies, with zero bogeys — to shoot 63 and finish at 25 under, six shots ahead of the runner-up. Tom Kim.

But here’s the thing: Go back to the first paragraph. You expected Scheffler to win, right? Check out that 2024 CV. It was pretty much the same in 2022 and 2023 too.

And that, Thomas said earlier in the week, is what makes him undeniably great, perhaps more than any other attribute. In April, at the RBC Heritage, he offered a similar thought. Eight months later, nothing has changed.

“I think it’s too low — I just underestimated how well he’s playing to expect him to play that well,” Thomas said. “I don’t think people realize how hard it is to win when you’re expected to win or when every single person that’s there expects you to play well and you expect you to play well and then you play well. I think expectations are something – it’s very, very difficult to manage. It’s really as much a talent as being able to, you know, control the distance with your wedges, fly a driver or hit it far, whatever it is, being able to stay present, stay in the moment .

“I think — when I think of the guys who are the best at it, I think of Scottie and Xander (Schaufele)they are two of the best when you play with them, they stay present and stay in the moment no matter how the day goes. I think it’s – it’s very hard to explain, but it’s so hard to do sometimes. Sometimes it’s even harder when you’re playing that well because it’s easy to think like, well, if I keep playing like this, I’m going to win this tournament, I’m going to win the next tournament and the next versus really—I mean, Tiger (Woods) It’s always talked about, every shot is the most important shot you’ve ever hit in your life, and after you hit it, you go do it again and the next thing you know, you’re like oh, I won again. This is a difficult thing to do. To me, that’s been the most impressive thing from Scottie.”

So another win for Scheffler.

But incredibly.

Takeaway

Scheffler isn’t slowing down. Every tournament – every single tournament – is up for grabs for him next year.

Breaking down the leaderboard

— Justin Thomas starts the final round with a one-shot lead. Thomas is 17, Scottie Scheffler is 16, Tom Kim is 15 and Keegan Bradley is 13.

— Scheffler shares the 439-yard, par-4 first to move into a share of the lead, but Thomas quickly answers with a birdie of his own. Thomas is 18 years old, Scheffler is 17 years old and Kim is 15 years old.

– Thomas bogeys the 177-yard, par-3 2nd after hitting a greenside chip shot, and Scheffler pars, and they are tied for the lead. Thomas and Scheffler are under 17, Kim is 15 and Bradley is 13.

— Scheffler tees off on the 561-yard, par-5 third after coming home in two, and he now leads by one. Scheffler is 18, Thomas is 17 and Kim is 16.

The last word

“Yeah, very satisfying,” Scheffler said on NBC after his win. Not much more to say really.