Late on Sunday afternoon in Florida, I thought of a long-ago late afternoon in Georgia.
No, the putt that Wyndham Clark missed on the 18th hole of TPC Sawgrass and the one Tom Kite missed on Augusta National’s 18th green in 1986 didn’t turn into heartbreak quite the same way.
Clark’s birdie attempt at The Players Championship caught a lot of the cup and was spit back at him horseshoe style. It was like a carnival-game barker knowing he was going to get your quarter when the ball wouldn’t drop in the undersized goal.
Kite’s try for a 3 to force Jack Nicklaus into extra holes and not immediately into the sleeves of a green jacket for the sixth time grazed the high side without falling in, agonizingly so, defying gravity and denying Kite in the same instant.
“It just didn’t do what it was supposed to,” Kite said afterward. His quest to win a major championship wouldn’t be fulfilled for another six years, until he was better than anyone in a near-gale at Pebble Beach in the U.S. Open.
Clark’s 17-footer on The Stadium Course’s 18th green did the same, staying out when it sure looked as if it was in. “I don’t know how that putt doesn’t go in,” said Clark, who already has a major, the 2023 U.S. Open, but was looking to enhance a young career on the ascent.
There was something else that tournaments separated by almost 40 years shared: A wonderful player had forced his foes into a position of a must-make on the 72nd hole by shooting a fantastic final round.
For Kite, it was Nicklaus coming home in 30 for a 65 at age 46 to claim an unexpected and unprecedented victory against the stalwarts of the day, a cast that in addition to Kite featured Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros.
For Clark, who had surged to the 36-hole lead with two 65s, it was Scottie Scheffler closing with a 64 as he roared back from a Players-record tying deficit of five strokes after 54 holes.
As golf history goes, Scheffler’s achievement—he is the first to successfully defend at The Players—doesn’t equal the Golden Bear’s 18th professional major title, still three more than anyone.
But as theater in 2024, given a splintered world of professional golf in which there seems to be more grousing than rejoicing, Scheffler’s performance rightly will resonate for a while. And the fact that Scheffler pulled it off on the 50th anniversary of the inaugural Players, in 1974, which was the first of Nicklaus’ victories in the PGA Tour’s flagship event, made it more special.
Only Justin Leonard (1998) and Henrik Stenson (2009) had rallied from as far back in the final round in The Players. Only Fred Couples in 1996 and Davis Love III had shot as low a closing final round as Scheffler.
It was special stuff from the Texan, an early transplant to the Lone Star State from his native New Jersey, who finished at 20-under 268, one better than Clark, third-round leader Xander Schauffele and Brian Harman, the 2023 Open champion.
Scheffler showed early on Sunday that it just might be a memorable afternoon when he dunked a 92-yard wedge for an eagle-2 on the fourth hole. By the time he made an 11-footer for birdie on the par-5 ninth, Scheffler had shot 31 going out and was fully in the picture.
The last couple of hours of St. Patrick’s Day—as Scheffler, Clark, Schauffele and Harman jockeyed for position, their scores well in the red on a day about the green—was about as good a show as there has been on the Stadium Course. That a cadre of golfers had a shot to force some more golf on the final hole of regulation recalled not only that famous 1986 Masters but other majors such as the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, where pars would have been as valuable as gold for a few contenders trying to catch the eventual winner, Geoff Ogilvy.
Pete Dye’s creation, a wild, wrinkled wonder when it opened in the early 1980s, doesn’t look much like it did in its formative years, its manicured appearance, including super-white bunker sand, pristine turf and a neat floor of pine needles in places off the fairway, now resembles the major site a 4½ hour drive to the northwest. And much like Augusta National, many fans know the holes and are familiar with what can happen where, which on a Sunday with a tight leaderboard as was the case this week adds to the plot—even for those who liked the Stadium course with less makeup, who think the island-green 17th is more gimmick than genius, who wish no one was approaching the 18th hole with a wedge, even with jacked-up lofts.
The 50th Players felt as Masters-like as I can remember, thanks mostly to Scheffler, who was a strong thoroughbred moving up on the outside until he had navigated his way to an important victory, his eighth career PGA Tour title, was secured. No entity can manufacture what happened on that back nine on Sunday; it must be organic, to use a word of the time.
When Scheffler tweaked his neck early in his second round, it looked like the injury might derail his attempt, but he hung in there and by Sunday there was no signs of hinderance, only the excellence that he has been displaying for a couple of years. Scheffler had only 10 putts through nine holes, more evidence of a resurgence on the greens that began last week with a victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando. He drove the ball beautifully at Sawgrass, hitting 12 of 14 fairways Sunday and 45 of 56 for the week, tying for first in Driving Accuracy over 72 holes, quite an improvement from his ranking of 105th in that stat for the season.
Scheffler’s victory solidified his position as World No. 1, which he has held for about a year and half in total. Only five players—Tiger Woods, Greg Norman, Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and Nick Faldo—have had longer turns at the top in the ranking, which debuted in 1986.
Before then, of course, there were No. 1s, but the designation came from eyeballs instead of arithmetic, which means over the decades that Walter Hagen, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Nicklaus and Tom Watson and others didn’t get a numeral to enhance what everybody already knew. There is chatter from some quarters about the validity of the current ranking. Scheffler’s victory at The Players won’t quiet all that noise, but there was an old-school brilliance in what he did, something past greats would recognize and that his competition, week-to-week and otherwise, will have to reckon with.
Beautiful piece, Bill. Your knowledge of history combined with the smooth prose puts you at #1 in the golf writing world.