Weekly PGA Recap: Automatic Scheffler Machine

This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.

Scottie Scheffler had a tricky 7-foot putt for par on the 18th hole at the Memorial on Sunday. It didn't matter whether it went in.

It didn't matter because Scheffler was leading the tournament by four strokes. But the putt did in fact go in -- never a doubt, thank you -- leaving an incredulous CBS' Jim Nantz to blurt out: "The man is a machine!"

Well, yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

Scheffler, the only golfer in double figures at 10-under, has now won three of his past four starts -- the Byron Nelson, PGA Championship and the Memorial. The U.S. Open is only two weeks away.

He began the final round a shot clear of Ben Griffin -- who was on a big-time run of his own and put up a pretty good fight until double-bogeying the 17th hole. Sepp Straka finished third, Nick Taylor fourth. 

What do they all have in common? They all have won on the PGA Tour this season, Griffin and Straka multiple times -- like Scheffler.

The world No. 1 won Jack Nicklaus' tournament for the second straight year -- only Tiger Woods had done that.

Scheffler was joined at his victory news conference by Nicklaus, who said something Scheffler never would, no matter how obvious.

"Well, I think that great players are ones who rise to the occasion and ones who know how to play coming down the stretch in important events," Nicklaus said. "Looking at the leaderboard today, he didn't have -- I mean, Ben Griffin's a nice player, Sepp Straka is a nice player, Nick Taylor is a nice player. Those were all the guys that were there basically coming down the stretch.

"But he knows that those guys, you know, are not in his league. Now, if he would have had -- I don't know who else it might have been, but if he had somebody else at the top, if Xander [Schauffele] or somebody like that would have been there, he might have said, 'Well, that might be a little tougher. I might have to do something different.' He didn't have to."

Not only would Scheffler never say that about his fellow competitors, it's a bit surprising Nicklaus would be so blunt about other golfers. But maybe when you're 85 years old, what the heck, speak your mind?

Scheffler has now won 16 times on Tour, and he's spent less time getting from his first win to his 16th than only three other guys in history. Two of them have already been mentioned here, Nicklaus and Woods, and the third is Sam Snead. 

Interestingly, it took Scheffler a while on Tour to get that first win. But after he did, well, you saw how fast he started moving. He explained why that may have been.

"Yeah, I think the way I look at tournaments is, you know, 72 holes is a lot of golf," he said, still sitting alongside Nicklaus. "Early in my career I felt like I didn't bring enough intensity to the first couple rounds. Like I would bring a lot of intensity on Saturday and Sunday, but I was always kind of on the outside looking in when it came to leaderboards, and that's one thing I think that Tiger was really good at was bringing that level of intensity to each and every shot."

Nicklaus. Woods. Scheffler.

All machines.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Ben Griffin
Griffin won the Zurich with Andrew Novak, then he won the Charles Schwab last week. With this runner-up, he's ranked No. 15 in the world. The run seems legit. We'll get a better indicator in two weeks at the U.S. Open at Oakmont.

Sepp Straka
Despite Nicklaus' comments, this was Straka's fifth top-10 and 11th top-25 on the season. He's playing better than anyone not named Scheffler or Rory McIlroy. But Nicklaus knows that Straka has missed the cut at the first two majors, and until he starts making a dent in the biggest tournaments, he won't be feared like other top players.

Nick Taylor
Taylor hasn't done much at the majors this year, either, though at least he made the cut at the Masters. He won the season-opening Sentry and now has a big week ahead: He'll be at the Canadian Open, the tournament he won two years ago to end a 70-year drought by Canadians in their national championship.

Russell Henley
Henley had not been playing well since winning at Bay Hill in March – he missed the cut at the Masters and PGA. So his tie for fifth was a much-needed turnaround in advance of the U.S. Open. Henley appears to be a lock for the Ryder Cup team, and he'll need to start showing what he could do on long, hard golf courses. This week, he did that.

Rickie Fowler
Fowler had his best week of the year and it came at just the right time. He tied for seventh. Not only was it his first top-10 of the year, it got him into the Open Championship as the highest finisher at the Memorial not already exempt into Royal Portrush. It also moved him to 67th in the FedEx Cup point standings, which would get him into the playoffs if they started today. Fowler almost moved back into the top of the 100 OWGR; he's at No. 101.

Jordan Spieth
Spieth also tied for seventh to move back inside the top 50 of the OWGR at No. 45. He drove the ball beautifully for much of the week, something he'll need to do to contend at the U.S. Open.

Brandt Snedeker
The surprise of the week was Snedeker. In on a sponsor invite, he closed with the round of the day, a 7-under 65 to move into a tie for seventh. He almost snatched that Open invite from Fowler (Fowler got it based on his higher world ranking). Fowler, Spieth and Snedeker were all sponsor invites. The fourth, Matt Kuchar, also had a fine week with a tie for 25th.

Keegan Bradley
Bradley kept the Ryder Cup playing captain narrative alive with a tie for seventh, his fourth top-10 and eighth top-25 of the season.

Tom Hoge
Hoge was the fifth and final golfer in that large tie for seventh. He was coming off two straight missed cuts, one of them at the PGA, so he needed this in advance of the U.S. Open.

Sam Burns
Burns has been on a roll and it continued at the Memorial with a tie for 12th. He's made six cuts in a row, four of them top-20s, putting him back into the Ryder Cup conversation with about three months to go before the team will be named.

Patrick Cantlay
Cantlay's meh season continued. He tied for 12th, which may sound good. But he played the back-nine in four-over 40 with five bogeys. Brutal.

Ludvig Aberg
Aberg has really been struggling. He closed with a 66, however, which was the second-best round of the day after Snedeker's 65. It moved him into a tie for 16th, That was just his fifth top-25 of the season.

Collin Morikawa
Morikawa opened with a 67 but proceeded to shoot himself out of the tournament with a 75 on Friday and a 77 on Saturday. At this point, it's hard to envision him being a factor at the U.S. Open.

Viktor Hovland
Hovland tied for 25th, continuing his mediocre play. Like with Morikawa, it's hard to see him contending at the Open in two weeks.

Max Homa
Homa took a step forward with an opening 68. Then took three giant leaps backward with a 79-75-77 finish to tie for 51st. Homa on Monday will attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open -- that's right, he's not already in the tournament.

MISSED CUTS

There were only 15 missed cuts in this 72-man field that brought the top 50 and ties to the weekend. But there were still some bigger names: Daniel Berger, Sahith Theegala, J.J. Spaun, Brian Harman and Lucas Glover. Berger had been playing beautifully but suddenly has forgotten how to putt, which is a huge problem for him. Also, Brian Campbell had to withdraw with a shoulder injury that's also forced him to back out of this week's Canadian Open.

For up-to-the-minute updates on injuries, tournament participation and overall golfer performance, head to RotoWire's latest golf news or follow @RotoWireGolf on X.