Scottie Scheffler Prevails at The PLAYERS Despite Wyndham Clark’s Late Charge

Scottie Scheffler became the first-ever back-to-back winner of The PLAYERS Championship on Sunday at TPC Sawgrass after lip out putt on 18 derailed U.S. Open Champion Wyndham Clark’s late charge.

Scheffler started the day five shots back of Xander Schauffele, who started the day -17 and one clear of Clark. 

However, the 2022 Masters Champion and current World #1 was able to fire a Sunday 64 and charge past everyone, narrowly missing a birdie putt on 18 for 63. Scheffler’s round was his best of the week and was widely impressive, considering the relatively large margin that he needed to overcome.

By the time Scheffler had finished his round, Schauffele and Clark were on the 15th. Clark started to charge late, making birdies on 16 and 17 to be just one back of Scheffler at -19. Clark’s approach on the 18th put him on the green short of the hole, where he hit a 12-footer for birdie that would have sent the tournament to a playoff.

Clark’s putt lipped out after nearly being more than halfway in the hole before popping out after a 180-degree trip around the outside of the cup:

One … shot … short … 💔

Heartbreak for Wyndham Clark on the 72nd hole @THEPLAYERS. pic.twitter.com/6d1Qa3elOa

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 17, 2024

Scheffler became the first player to successfully defend The PLAYERS, and his crown was not obtained without adversity. The World #1 struggled with neck ailments for most of the weekend and played his final round with KT Tape on his neck to alleviate the pain.

However, he knew that with a strong performance on Sunday, he could be in the running to win the tournament:

“I was hoping to be in this position. I put up a good fight for four days. That’s really all there was. Teddy [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 takes home a $4.5 million prize.

Cover Image via Golfweek