Dominant Scheffler raises the bar ... again

Is a career slam next up on Scottie's hit list? Captain Keegan picks a lock

Scottie Scheffler moves closer to the brink of a career slam (Stuart Franklin/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Scottie Scheffler burnished his standing as the best golfer in the world with an emphatic victory in the Open Championship at Royal Portrush — claiming his fourth major title at age 29 and a third leg in pursuit of becoming the seventh player in history to complete the career grand slam.

Two players immediately come to mind after Scheffler’s four-shot win over Harris English that didn’t seem that close. Both players needed one victory in the U.S. Open to accomplish the career grand slam, and both came close many times but couldn’t get it over the finish line.

Sam Snead and Phil Mickelson.

Snead was arguably one of the best ball strikers in the history of the game. Snead had a competitive career that lasted long past his contemporaries, winning his last event on the PGA Tour, the 1965 Greater Greensboro Open, at the age of 52. With 82 wins on the PGA Tour and seven major victories, Snead was a force. But his four runner-up finishes in the U.S. Open and inability to earn a career grand slam remains a significant focus of Snead’s legacy.

For Snead, when he talked about the 1947 U.S. Open runner-up loss to Lew Worsham, it was clear how much the lack of a win in the National Open meant to him.

“That’s the only regret I have ever had, not winning a U.S. Open,” Snead said in an interview years later.

Mickelson has six major titles on his impressive résumé. He also has a record six runner-up in the U.S. Open. Like Snead, that leaves a gaping hole in his World Golf Hall of Fame legacy.

When Payne Stewart drained a birdie putt on the 72nd hole of the 1999 U.S. Open at Pinehurst, everyone believed that Mickelson’s near miss would be the first of many chances to win the National Open.

The tall left-hander would finish experience U.S. Open heartbreak five more times as silver medalist in the next 14 years, the last one coming in 2013 at Merion Golf Club when he slipped two shots behind Justin Rose.

(Photos courtesy PGA of America, R&A and Augusta National)

Now, Scheffler is in the Snead/Mickelson category of needing only the U.S. Open to join golf’s most exclusive fraternity of champions with a lot of runway in front of him. After watching the Champion Golfer of the Year play unflappable golf at age 29, it seems just a matter of time before he joins the other six players who have achieved golf’s career slam.

Then again, time was once on Snead’s and Mickelson’s side as well.

“I don't think we thought the golfing world would see someone as dominant as Tiger come through so soon, and here’s Scottie sort of taking that throne of dominance,” 2024 Open champion Xander Schauffele said of Scheffler. “You can't even say he’s on a run, he’s just been killing it for over two years now. He’s a tough man to beat, and when you see his name up on the leaderboard, it sucks for us.”

When Rory McIlroy joined Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as career slammers by winning the Masters in April after 11 agonizing years, he left Jordan Spieth (PGA) and Mickelson (U.S. Open) as the lone active players missing were one piece of majors set. All Scheffler had on his ledger was two green jackets.

But in just two short months, Scheffler ticked off the PGA and Open Championship boxes, and now the U.S. Open next year at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, one of the five founding clubs of the USGA, will be Scheffler’s first chance at another rung of golf immortality.

Scheffler — who at Christmas used a wine glass to cut raviolis and required minor surgery to remove the glass fragments from his hand — has been a machine after a mediocre return to professional golf in February. But once he won at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, PGA, Memorial and now the Open. He’s once again made the rest of the field focus on second place.

“I think all you can do is admire what he does and how he does it,” McIlroy said of Scheffler. “I think what he does is one thing, but how he does it is another. He just goes about his business, doesn’t do anything overly flamboyant, but he’s the best at executing in the game right now.”

By winning on Sunday, Scheffler is only the fourth player in golf history to win the Masters, PGA Championship and Open Championship all before age 30. The other three are Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.

“He doesn’t care to be a superstar, he’s not transcending the game like Tiger did, he’s not bringing it to a non-golf audience necessarily, he doesn’t want to go do the stuff that a lot of us go do, corporately, anything like that,” Spieth said of fellow Texas Longhorn Scheffler. “He just wants to get away from the game and separate the two because I know that he — at one time, he felt it was too much, that he was taking it with him, and whenever he made that switch, I don’t know what it was, but he has hobbies. He’s always with his family. They’re always doing stuff. I think it’s more so the difference in personality from any other superstar that you’ve seen in the modern era, and maybe in any sport. I don’t think anybody is like him.”

And on the golf course, nobody can touch him when he’s on these days.

“None of us could hang with Scottie this week,” said Rory McIlroy. “He’s an incredible player. He’s been dominant this week. Honestly, he’s been dominant for the last couple years. He is the bar that we’re all trying to get to.

“In a historical context, you could argue that there’s only maybe two or three players in the history of the game that have been on a run, the one that Scottie’s been on here for the last 24 to 36 months. Incredibly impressive. …

“I think all you can do is admire what he does and how he does it. I think what he does is one thing, but how he does it is another. He just goes about his business, doesn’t do anything overly flamboyant, but he’s the best at executing in the game right now. Yeah, he’s been absolutely amazing over these past two to three years. As I said, all you can do is tip your cap and watch in admiration.”

As golf heads into its long nine-month gap before the next major tees off in Augusta, Ga., next April, Scheffler’s dominance gives golf fans plenty to talk about and his peers a lot to work on before the Masters.

Jon Rahm, who like McIlroy, Spieth and Brooks Koepka has had his moments of dominance on major stages, got a taste of what Scheffler would become in a losing singles match at the 2021 Ryder Cup before Scheffler had ever won anything on the PGA Tour. He’s sees motivation in Scheffler’s career trajectory.

“Very few players have been able to do what he’s done,” Rahm said. “Won nine times last season, and he keeps going on. He’s doing what everybody wants to do.

“What I keep reminding myself is he was able to turn things around drastically. From not being able to close out early on some of the chances he had to getting it done often. If he’s been able to do it, all of us are able to do it. I’ve definitely played really high, and I’ve had my battles against him head to head, and it’s always been a lot of fun. I’m optimistic that I can get to that level as well. Obviously it’s not easy, but I’m optimistic it can be done.”

---

Bryson DeChambeau’s doggedness and emotion make him a Ryder Cup lock (Alex Pantling/R&A via Getty Images)

DeChambeau: ‘Important piece’ on Team USA

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — There was little doubt that Bryson DeChambeau was going to be a member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, especially after making the cut at the Open and rallying to a top-10 finish.

But without the ability to earn any more Ryder Cup points because he plays for LIV Golf, there exists the possibility that he could fall out of the top six automatic qualifiers after next month’s BMW Championship.

All of that is moot as U.S. captain Keegan Bradley told Sports Illustrated on Sunday that DeChambeau will definitely be part of the American team at Bethpage Black.

“Bryson is going to be a very important piece to us winning the Ryder Cup,” Bradley said via text Sunday night. “He brings so much. He brings energy, passion but most importantly, he’s one of the best players on the planet.”

Earlier, DeChambeau had said that he spoke briefly to Bradley during the week and that the captain had delivered inspirational messages to a number of potential players. It was a photo of Justin Leonard, who clinched the 1999 Ryder Cup for the U.S. at Brookline, where Bradley attended as a 13-year-old.

“It was a very important moment in our USA Ryder Cup history,” Bradley said. “That changed my life forever. I wanted to portray to the boys that this will be them. And they can make a huge impact on people with what they do at Bethpage.”

Although he failed to add to his major total this year, DeChambeau still had a strong year. He played in the final group with winner Rory McIlroy at the Masters, where he tied for fifth. Then he tied for second behind Scheffler at the PGA Championship.

The only cut he missed was last month in the U.S. Open at Oakmont.

In 10 LIV Golf events this year, DeChambeau has six top-10 finishes, including a victory in Korea. LIV has a tournament next week in England.