Before getting to the increasingly historic numbers attached to Scottie Scheffler’s playoff victory over Tom Kim in the Travelers Championship on Sunday, consider a bit of context:
Scheffler was coming off a disappointing U.S. Open performance in which he failed to break par in any of the four rounds, made just four birdies over 72 holes and suddenly played like everyman instead of Superman.
At TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut, his friend Tom Kim lived atop the leaderboard for most of the week, Cameron Young threw a 59 at the field on Saturday and, early in the final nine holes on Sunday, five players, including Tony Finau, Akshay Bhatia and Patrick Cantlay, were tied for the lead.
And there were protesters.
On the 72nd hole, while Scheffler faced a putt to win and Kim ultimately had a putt to force sudden death, a group of activists from a group called Extinction Rebellion stormed the green with smoke canisters that left splotches of powder on the putting surface before being tackled and whisked away by law enforcement.
Almost nothing – except perhaps Pinehurst No. 2 – fazes Scheffler, who won his sixth tournament of the year with a two-putt par on the first extra hole after Kim bunkered his approach shot and was unable to save par.
It felt classically Scheffler-like as he put together a clean 5-under 65 in the final round and kept the pressure on his challengers to match his wrinkle-free play. None of them could do it.
“I try not to look too far into the past and too far into the future,” Scheffler said. “It’s been fun, and a lot of hard work is paying off. Very grateful to have some trophies to show for it.”
He earned $3.6 million from the $20 million prize fund in the last of eight elite signature events.
The scene on the 18th green at the end of regulation was sudden and disturbing. The protesters broke from the crowd while the players were studying their third shots, carrying canisters with them. In a statement, the group said it was not protesting against any person or organization but bringing attention to worldwide climate change while citing a lightning strike that injured two spectators onsite after play had been suspended Saturday.
Law-enforcement officers quickly tackled the protesters and took them away, but not before they interrupted play and left the 18th green splotched with red and white powder.
“It was definitely a bit weird,” Scheffler said. “They got it taken care of pretty damn fast. It seemed to go by really quick to us. You don’t really what’s happening. You don’t know what they’re doing. It can be a bit stressful. You could see me and Akshay talking a minute, me and Tom talking a minute to calm down. … I felt like Tom and I both tried to calm each other down to give each other the best chance.”
Bhatia, who was in the final threesome and on the green, was stunned by the sudden event.
“I was scared for my life. I didn't even really know what was happening,” Bhatia said. “All of a sudden, four, five people come out running on the green. Yeah, I mean, it was kind of weird. But thankfully the cops were there and kept us safe, because that's, you know, that's just weird stuff.”
Scheffler’s sixth victory before July 1 put him in rare PGA Tour company. Only Jimmy Demaret, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Arnold Palmer (twice) have won six times in the first six months of the year.
In the past 40 years, only Tiger Woods (three times) and Vijay Singh have won more than six times in a year. Singh (2004) and Woods (2000) won nine times in a year.
Kim, who has become a close friend of Scheffler’s since moving to the Dallas area, led after each of the first three rounds but needed a birdie on the 72nd hole to force a playoff. After waiting for the protesters to be removed and the putting surface treated, Kim drained the 10-foot tying putt to force extra holes.
“Part of me wants him to miss the putt; part of me wants him to make the putt because he’s my friend.”
Scottie Scheffler
Scheffler had mixed emotions watching Kim putt to force the playoff.
“Part of me wants him to miss the putt; part of me wants him to make the putt because he’s my friend,” Scheffler said.
Playing the 18th again to a different hole location, Kim dumped his approach shot into a buried lie in a greenside bunker, clearing the path for Scheffler to win with a par. Both players finished at 22-under 258 in regulation.
“I fought hard. It takes, really, just small things to win out here, and my two bogeys this week came from two three-putts,” Kim said.
“That last hole in the playoff, where in regulation I had the same kind of shot where I just needed to smash a wedge when the wind was up, and the difference between regulation and the playoff was as soon as I hit it, the wind died and a slight mis-hit and unfortunately plugged ball, and when that happens, you can’t do anything about it.”
Ron Green Jr.