History! Scottie Scheffler becomes 1st golfer to win back-to-back Players Championships

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Golden anniversary.

Platinum finish.

And history.

How’s that for the 50th Players Championship?

Scottie Scheffler mastered the best field in golf, taming the rugged Stadium Course and becoming the first golfer to win back-to-back Players Championship titles with a spectacular comeback on Sunday in the anniversary edition at TPC Sawgrass. Scheffler, battling neck pain all week that forced him to take extended breaks to have a physical therapist work on his aching neck, erased a five-shot deficit entering the final round and won The Players by a stroke in a finish that he didn’t see. Scheffler was over on the practice range preparing for a playoff that was oh-so-close to happening.

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One by one, the challengers had their opportunities. One by one, they came up frustratingly short.

Third-round leader Xander Schauffele had his shot to force it, but couldn’t drain his 61-foot putt on No. 18. British Open champ Brian Harman and U.S. Open winner Wyndham Clark also had their shots on the final hole, too. Harman left his putt 3 feet from the hole. And Clark’s 7-foot putt on 18 was agonizing, going dead at the center before lipping out of the cup. Clark was stunned at the half-circle rim out, the groans from the gallery telling Scheffler all he needed to know.

Scheffler had done something that Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and none of the all-time greats had done before — defended their Players title.

Scheffler finished 20 under, a stroke ahead of Schauffele, Harman and Clark. In the process, he added a winner’s check for $4.5 million, one of the highest payouts on the PGA Tour.

“I was hoping to be in this position. Yesterday, I put up a good fight for four days. That’s really all there was. Teddy [his caddy Ted Scott] kept me in a good head space out there. We had a great finish yesterday, and then got off to a slow start today, but then the hole-out on 4 kind of propelled us a little bit, and hit a lot of good shots today, did a lot of good things this week.”

Scheffler fired a sterling 8-under 64 on Sunday, tied for the third-lowest in final round history (Brooks Kopeka in 2018 and Dustin Johnson in 2022 had 63s) catching leader Schauffele with three holes to play after turning a bunker shot on 16 into a birdie and then sticking one of his best putts of the tournament on 17 to within 8 inches.

Schauffele was the favorite entering the round and held that spot most of the day until struggling with back-to-back bogeys on the back nine. Harman was in the thick of things, too, knocking in a birdie putt on No. 15 to get within a stroke. But he had to settle for par on the par-5 16th, one of the course’s easiest holes to make up ground on. His 20-foot putt to tie Scheffler on 18 sailed by the hole.

Scheffler hung around during the first three rounds with a 67, 69 and 68. But a golfer nursing a stiff neck and starting the day five strokes off the lead against difficult Sunday pins wasn’t quite the recipe for history. Scheffler said every time he tried to line up a putt earlier in the week, his neck throbbed. Buoyed by a three-birdie finish in the third round and less pain in his neck, Scheffler went on a tear.

“I’m a pretty competitive guy, and I didn’t want to give up in the tournament,” Scheffler said. “I did what I could to hang around until my neck got better. Today it felt really good.”

Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 golfer, dialed up a round for the ages.

Wearing a patch to help with the pain in his neck, Scheffler had a blistering final round. His 92-yard chip-in on the par-4 No. 4 kickstarted a sizzling, bogey-free round on a somewhat forgiving Stadium Course.

Scheffler started the day well behind Schauffele. His first shot to tie him on the par-3 No. 13 was a 7-foot putt that rolled past the cup. That was the first of three straight pars before finally tracking Schauffele down at the par-5 16th. Scheffler’s approach found the bunker but sat perfectly atop the sand. He wedged out to within 19 inches and tapped in for birdie. Schauffele tripped up at the tough 14th, his approach drifting well right and into the deep rough. His approach was off, too, and Schauffele’s pitch to the green died nearly 25 feet away from the cup. That bogey put Scheffler in the lead.

“But I hung in there. I gave myself a realistic chance. Not on 18, but on 17,” Schauffele said. “If I made that, it could have been a different story.”

I hung tough, and, yeah, no surprise to see Scottie’s name up there.

Now, all he had to do was survive two of the most challenging holes on the course and hope that the field didn’t gain ground.

Scheffler was unflappable with the pressure on. His tee shot on the iconic 17th — with a Sunday pin position on the front side of the green protected by a sharp drop — went left of the hole and wound up 48 feet away. Scheffler’s putt had to climb the ledge and drift right, which it did perfectly, 8 inches from the cup. He tapped in for par.

The contenders were all around, and certainly had their chances.

Harman and U.S. Open winner Clark, the leader going into the weekend, pressed for the lead but were never able to mount a sustained challenge. Harman was a stroke behind Scheffler but had to settle for par on the 16th hole, one of the easiest on the course to make up ground on. Schauffele rebounded with a birdie on 16 and stuck his tee shot on 17 to within 6 feet, but pushed his putt just left. Clark got to within a stroke with a birdie on 17, and had a shot to force a playoff on 18 but didn’t get his putt to fall.

“I don’t know how that putt doesn’t go in,” Clark said. “It was kind of right center with like a foot to go, and I knew it was going to keep breaking, but it had speed and I thought it was going to good inside left, and even when it kind of lipped, I thought it would lip in. I’m pretty gutted it didn’t go in. ... The one on 18, I want to try to make the putt. I didn’t really care about the second putt. We’ve already had a good start to the year. I wanted to be in a playoff, so I went for it.”