Perhaps it’s not too late to make one more tweak to the format for the Tour Championship in Atlanta this week.
Maybe Scottie Scheffler should spot the field a few strokes.
Regardless of whether or not he wins at East Lake in the 30-player playoff finale, Scheffler has been the PGA Tour’s dominant player – again – and his victory Sunday in the BMW Championship at Caves Valley near Baltimore came with a spectacular punctuation mark.
Scheffler’s pitch-in birdie from off the green at the par-3 17th hole when the outcome still seemed in doubt unfolded in almost slow motion, adding to its slam-the-door impact on Robert MacIntyre, who started the final round with a four-stroke lead only to find himself sagging at the end as Scheffler did what he does.
It was Scheffler’s fifth victory in his last 10 starts, he is on a run of 17 consecutive rounds under par and he managed to play the wickedly tough par-3 17th at Caves Valley 1-under par for the week without ever hitting the green in regulation.
Not that he needed to.
“I played smart off the tee. That’s obviously the miss there. Part of me wanted to go at the pin, and I kind of held off there on the left side. I knew par wasn’t going to be a bad score on that hole today,” Scheffler said, explaining his approach to the 17th on Sunday when he held a one-stroke lead.
“Anytime you hole a chip like that, it’s pretty nice. It looked good when it landed, looked good when it was rolling, and it was nice to see that one go in.”
The day began with Scheffler in full chase mode but MacIntyre obliged by making bogeys on three of his first five holes, flipping the dynamic.
“I can’t control what he does. … If he doesn’t get up-and-down [at 17], my ball didn’t fly two yards long, it may have been a different story,” MacIntyre said.
“But look, he’s the better player on the day. … Right now I want to go and smash up my golf clubs, to be honest with you.”
Scheffler, who finished at 15-under-par 265, will go to the Tour Championship in first place in FedEx Cup points but with no guarantee of becoming the first player to win consecutive FedEx Cups. Under the revised system, the FedEx Cup champion will be determined purely on who wins the Tour Championship at Atlanta with all 30 players starting even.
Scheffler did pick up an additional $5 million for leading the points race after the second playoff event.
Getting to East Lake – which has a $40 million purse including $10 million to the winner – was one of the two subplots beyond Scheffler’s victory.
Players ping-ponged back and forth around the top-30 cutoff line Sunday. Sungjae Im, Chris Gotterup and Akshay Bhatia slipped in at Nos. 28-30, respectively, while Michael Kim was bumped to 31st when his playing partner, Viktor Hovland, birdied the 72nd hole to knock him out of the top 30.
It prompted Kim to post on social media, “Viktor and I used to be friends …”
Rickie Fowler was inside the top 30 until a double bogey at the 15th hole ultimately dropped him to 32nd.
Also, the six automatic qualifiers for the U.S. Ryder Cup team were locked in. Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, J.J. Spaun, Russell Henley, Harris English and Bryson DeChambeau secured their spots and all were inside the top six entering the week.
Among the players chasing a captain’s pick on Aug. 27, Maverick McNealy finished third, only his second top-10 finish since April, and Sam Burns tied for fourth, strengthening their cases.
Ron Green Jr.