Weekly PGA Recap: Scottie's Stacking Up Jackets

Weekly PGA Recap: Scottie's Stacking Up Jackets

This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.

You've all probably heard of Mad Libs. You know, the game where you have a sentence with blank spaces and you have to fill in them in to make statements that are funny or make no sense or defy logic.

For example, if you had this Mad Lib:

Scottie Scheffler won the    name of tournament       by    number    strokes over       name of golfer    on     day of week     for his     ordinal number     PGA Tour victory in his past      number      starts.

You could turn it into this logic-defying sentence:

Scottie Scheffler won the RBC Heritage by three strokes over Sahith Theegala on Monday for his fourth PGA Tour victory in his past five starts.

(Hey, we know it ain't winning a Pulitzer, but you try writing the same thing week after week.)

Yes, Scheffler won again, adding a plaid jacket to his growing collection of the green variety. And, no, there wasn't any drama on Sunday, or even Monday, when the rain-delayed tournament at Harbour Town concluded.

No, it didn't matter that Scheffler was coming off his second major title at the Masters, it didn't matter that he didn't get on site until Tuesday, it didn't matter that his wife is now very close to giving birth to their first child, it didn't matter that … NOTHING MATTERED.

"I talked about it at the beginning of the week; I didn't show up here just to have some sort of ceremony and have people tell me congratulations," Scheffler told reporters in South Carolina. "I came here with a purpose. Got off to a slow start but after that played some really nice golf."

It didn't even matter that Scheffler actually hit a bad tee shot on the par-15th hole on Sunday that went into the water. He parred the hole with an 11-foot putt. But Scheffler did bogey 18, -- his first bogey in 68 holes, if you can believe that but of course you can because it's Scheffler -- making things closer than they appeared. He shot 19-under to Theegala's 16-under.

Scheffler now has 10 PGA Tour titles, all in the span of the past three seasons, and this season is far from over. There are all sorts of Scheffler factoids in the PGA Tour tournament notes, and most of them involve Tiger Woods. For instance, Scheffler is the first player to win a major and then the following week since Woods in 2006. Also, he's the first player to win four of five starts since Woods in 2007-08.

Scheffler has now more than doubled world No. 2 Rory McIlroy is OWGR points, 15.016 to 7.365.

It's hard to believe that Scheffler is only 6 for 12 when holding the 54-hole lead or co-lead in his career.

Scheffler led the field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and in Approach, but he was only 36th in Putting. Still a bit of an issue (c'mon, nobody believes that!).

The only player to beat him in the past two months is Stephan Jaeger, with whom Scheffler was tied heading into the final round of the Houston Open. Scheffler missed a 5-footer on 18 that would've forced a playoff.

The only good news for the other golfers on Tour is that Scheffler won't win this coming week, and probably not the week after and, depending on when Meredith Scheffler gives birth, maybe even the week after that.

The Zurich Classic team event is this week and Scheffler isn't entered. Then comes the Byron Nelson that he should skip  followed by the Wells Fargo, a Signature Event that Scheffler surely would like to play in.

After that comes the PGA Championship, as Scheffler will continue his charge toward a possible grand slam of the four majors.

Still, Scheffler was asked Monday morning what is next on his calendar.

"I'm going to get a breakfast burrito, some coffee, and I'm going to go home."

The way things are going for the best golfer in the world, that had to be one heck of a burrito.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Sahith Theegala
Theegala's great season continued with a second runner-up and a fifth top-10. He is up to a career-best No. 12 in the world rankings. He ranked third in Strokes Gained: Approach and sixth in SG: Putting and, if he didn't have to play against Scheffler, we'd say he'd probably win another tournament very soon.

Patrick Cantlay
If there's one course where Cantlay can play well, it's Harbour Town. So in a season where he's barely contended, he tied for third (he didn't really contend here either because, you know, Scheffler). Let's see whether this can springboard Cantlay back into his usual self. He'll play alongside best pal Xander Schauffele this week at the Zurich Classic team event, but that may not be the best barometer of Cantlay's individual play.

Wyndham Clark
A week after face-planting and putting his foot in his mouth at the Masters with a crack about LIV Golf, Clark importantly got back in the saddle with another great week. He tied for third. He is now ranked THIRD in the world and it could not be a surprise to see him overtake McIlroy soon. 

Justin Thomas
After another disaster at the Masters with a new caddie, a good week was not in the forecast. But Thomas had a very good week, culminating with a 65 that left him in a tie for fifth, his best finish since T3 at the Amex in January. 

Sepp Straka
Straka had the unfortunate task of playing the final round alongside Scheffler. Beginning Sunday tied for second, Straka shot over par. He did rally at the end to cut his final round to 1-over, leaving him in a tie for fifth. While he won't be happy to have slid back, Straka has turned things around after a terrible start to the season. He tied for 16th at THE PLAYERS and the Masters before the RBC.

J.T. Poston
Poston is ranked in the top-50 in the world, and he's getting into all the majors and Signature Events, but he's not expected to compete with the big boys. But he has and he did again, tying for fifth. Poston got off to a fast start to the season with four top-11s in the first month and a half. He had treaded water for a number of tournaments before this excellent finish.

Patrick Rodgers
Rodgers tying for fifth, and earning one of the biggest checks of his winless PGA Tour career, gives credence to the Tour's statement that there will be churn for the Signature Events, and lesser guys will be able to reap some of the rewards. This is Rodgers' third top-10 of the year. He's had some runners-ups in his career, but in tournaments such as the John Deere, RSM Classic and the Barracuda. You could argue this was his best week ever in more than a decade on Tour.

Collin Morikawa
Morikawa wasn't going to catch Scheffler, but he came out of the Sunday rain delay with consecutive bogeys on 13 and 14, finding the water on 14, to tumble into ninth place. Still, looking just at the final leaderboard and knowing nothing else about the tournament, two good weeks in a row for Morikawa.. Bodes well for the rest of his season.

Ludvig Aberg
The sensational Swede was in the mix yet again, just a week after finishing second in his first career major. Unfortunately for Aberg, he doubled 18 to shoot over par for the final round and fall into a tie for 10th.

Chris Kirk
Kirk had done very little since winning the Sentry at the start of the year. So it's encouraging for him to see back-to-back weeks of T16 at the Masters and now T10 at the RBC.

Rickie Fowler
In what had been a terrible season to date for Fowler, there are signs of things turning around. His two best finishes of the year -- T30 at the Masters and T18 at the RBC -- came the past two weeks and in two loaded fields.

Akshay Bhatia
He's only 22, but playing six straight weeks is wild, especially when there's been a major, THE PLAYERS and now a Signature Event. Bhatia made it through with flying colors, winning the Valero Texas Open, making the cut at the Masters and now tying for 18th at Harbour Town.

Stephan Jaeger
This is the last man to beat Scheffler. In winning the Houston Open, Jaeger got into the Masters (MC) and all remaining Signature Events (T18 at the RBC). A top-20 in a loaded field so soon after a life-altering victory is a good sign for Jaeger for the rest of the season.

Rory McIlroy
We feel obligated to post about McIlroy, no matter what, even a tie for 33rd. After three rounds in the 60s, he closed with a 74, doubling the final hole. Just a terrible year.

Jordan Spieth
Spieth talked of possibly withdrawing on Thursday because of his ongoing wrist issue – he said a tendon on his left wrist "popped out." He stayed in the tournament and tied for 39th at a course where he won and was runner-up the past two years. There has been no talk of taking time off to heal, but you have to wonder how long Spieth can go on like this.

Webb Simpson
He didn't necessarily deserve yet another plum spot in a big-money event, but Simpson beat more than a third of the field with a tie for 42nd. The next possible sponsor invite for Simpson comes in three weeks at the next Signature Event, the Wells Fargo. He can't possibly get another one, can he? 

CORALES PUNTACANA CHAMPIONSHIP

There aren't many guys who win their eighth career PGA Tour title at an opposite-field event. And not a lot of top players gone bad swallow their pride and head to a lower-level event to get back on track. So give Billy Horschel credit for heading to the Dominican Republic looking to return to relevance. Horschel, who had fallen close to No. 100 in the world, came from behind to win the tournament and move to No. 65 in the world. Not only does he secure his playing privileges for the next two years -- which was no sure thing for the 37-year-old -- he'll likely qualify for the next Signature Event in three weeks at the Wells Fargo.

KORN FERRY TOUR

Fifteen-year-old high school freshman Miles Russell not only made the cut at the LECOM Suncoast Classic, he tied for 20th, becoming the youngest player to finish in the top-25 in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event on record (since 1983). As such, the Jacksonville Beach, Fla., youngster also qualified for next week's Korn Ferry event in Dallas. In other Korn Ferry news, Tim Widing of Sweden won the tournament in a playoff over Patrick Cover and Steven Fisk.

LPGA TOUR

Nelly Korda is actually playing better than Scheffler. While Scheffler has won four of his past five starts, the world's top-ranked woman golfer has won all five of hers, including on Sunday in the first major of the LPGA season, the Chevron Championship. Korda tied an LPGA record (since 1978) with the fifth straight win, joining Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sorenstam (2004-05). This was Korda's second career major championship. She will go for a sixth straight win and the solo record this week at the JM Eagle LA Championship at famed Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Len Hochberg
Len Hochberg has covered golf for RotoWire since 2013. A veteran sports journalist, he was an editor and reporter at The Washington Post for nine years. Len is a three-time winner of the FSWA DFS Writer of the Year Award (2020, '22 and '23) and a five-time nominee (2019-23). He is also a writer and editor for MLB Advanced Media.
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