Scottie Scheffler Earned His First Career PGA Tour Win By Beating Patrick Cantlay On The 3rd Playoff Hole At The WM Phoenix Open
SCOTTIE!!!!!
What a tournament. We had Tour rookie Sahith Theegala (and newly crowned club drop king) on top and around the lead all weekend and a TON of huge names pushing him. At any given point, this looked like Brooks Koepka's, Patrick Cantlay's, or Xander Schauffele's tournament to lose. Ultimately they all did.
It was Scottie firing a tournament low 62 on Saturday to put himself in position to make his move on Sunday. He was so far down the leaderboard thru 2 rounds that he teed off of 10 on Saturday and finished well before the leaders he was trying to track down. He still started Sunday 3 shots back and didn't really make his move until late on the back 9. There were plenty of opportunities for bigger names to step on the gas and seize control of the tournament, and none of them did. That opened the door for Scottie, who reeled off birdies on 4 out of 5 holes and even left himself a 5-footer on his 72nd hole to win the whole dang thing in regulation. Of course, because it's never easy breaking through for your first win, he missed and we were off to a playoff.
Cantlay and Scottie traded pars on the first 2 holes before Scottie found himself in the fairway bunker on the 3rd playoff hole. He was able to smash it out onto the green and give himself about 25 feet for birdie, while Cantlay gave himself his own good look for birdie from the fairway. Finally, Scottie was able to rise to the occasion and bury it, while Cantlay missed the type of putt he seems to make and that was that. All of this was well into the first quarter of the Super Bowl.
Scottie's been knockin for a good while. I dubbed him my honorary Tony Finau FOMO pick a few tournaments as a guy who's simply too due not to bet week after week. A win was simply inevitable. He was the Korn Ferry player of the year in 2019 and Tour Rookie of the Year in 2020, despite not notching a win. That elusive W felt especially inevitable after he played well again in 2021 and capped the year off with a tremendous Ryder Cup showing. Sure enough, we were able to cash in to the tune of +2200 after only a handful of tournaments.
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Which leaves me without a FOMO guy. Probably Xander Schauffele? He was my top pick this week and he was a short birdie attempt on 18 from being in the playoff himself. He's easily a top 10 guy in the game, yet hasn't won a Tour event since January 2019. Yeah, Xander's the guy.
Anyways, this has gotta be the first of many for Scottie. 25 years old and keeps getting better and better. Probably gonna be a top pick at the Match Play given that Ryder Cup performance and his finalist showing there last year. Excited to see where this dude's career goes from here. Well deserved W at an awesome tournament.
Bravo, Scottsdale.