ORLANDO, Fla. – Scottie Scheffler admittedly doesn’t look at the world rankings much. He’s sat atop the Official World Golf Ranking for soon-to-be 44 straight weeks – 79 overall – since supplanting Jon Rahm last May. Not that Scheffler’s counting.
Armed instead with the mindset that good golf takes care of winning and winning takes care of everything else, Scheffler would rather do every week what he did this week at Bay Hill Club and Lodge, where he delivered a dominating performance, the most convincing win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational – a five-shot victory over Wyndham Clark – since Tiger Woods also won by five in 2012.
That was a year before Scheffler won the U.S. Junior Amateur.
Now, he’s the guy everyone is chasing.
“It’s nice to be No. 1,” Scheffler said Sunday evening while donning his second red winner’s cardigan. “I would much rather be No. 1 than No. 2. It’s something that I don’t try to focus on, it’s not something I place my identity in. For me, as a golfer, I just try to put the work in, and just because you make it to the top, I mean, the work almost gets more difficult to stay there. It’s a challenging thing.
“Everybody, I guess, now is kind of looking up at me at the top of the rankings and trying to take me down, so in order to stay up there, you got to put in a lot of work.”
You can bet, too, especially after Scheffler added a superb week on the greens (No. 5 in strokes gained putting, No. 1 in the final round) to his historic ball-striking, Scheffler’s peers are taking note.
Here’s what they are saying after Scheffler’s big week:
RORY MCILROY
“He’s been super consistent. I think being as consistent as Scottie has been is really, really difficult in this game. Anyone can pop up and win an event here or there or get on a good run, but the consistent performances that Scottie’s been putting in week-in and week-out every time he tees it up, it is incredible.
“Then what he’s doing this week, I mean, this is a super tough golf course and to be 6 under today going out with the lead and just sort of lapping the field is, it’s super impressive, but we all knew that he had this in him. His ball striking is, honestly, on another level compared to everyone else right now. We knew if he started to hole putts, then this sort of stuff would happen.”
WYNDHAM CLARK
“Yeah, it would be borderline unfair if he starts putting really good. I never want to wish ill on anybody, but if he starts putting positive each week it’s going to be really hard to beat. But that’s good. It’s just going to push me to get better in my will ball striking and every part of the game. He’s kind of the barometer right now and I’ve got a lot of room to catch up and get better.”
“Scottie should win almost every year here. With his ball-striking, this golf course is so demanding tee to green and he’s been the best last few years in that category, so I’m not shocked. It was definitely out there. I had some radios holes a couple loose bogeys, I had some loose holes, a couple of loose bogeys, and if I make a couple putts I think I could have maybe challenged him. But hat’s off to Scottie, he’s the best player in the world right now and that’s what the best players in the world do, they shoot 66 in a final round.”
WILL ZALATORIS
“He’s the No. 1 player in the world for a reason. The kid’s been a world beater his entire career, junior golf, amateur golf, college golf, and now on the professional level. Yeah, I don’t ever want to say that you expect it and throw those expectations on someone, but I would say I’m definitely not surprised with -- it stinks because he’s such a good guy too, so when you’re shooting those scores, sometimes you want to get in his pocket, but he’s a great dude and he and Meredith are awesome people. That’s stellar playing and the kid deserves it.”
SHANE LOWRY VIA SCHEFFLER
“After I hit my approach shot in there he just turned around and said, ‘That was a heck of a round of golf.’ Then, he kind of let me have my space as we walked up there. Then, on 18 green, Shane’s a great competitor and great player as well, and he’s had his fair share of wins, so he’s always very gracious. So, yeah, he congratulated me, and then he gave me some crap, because it took a little while to get into scoring, but you got to do interviews and all that stuff, but, yeah, it was fun, I enjoyed going around the golf course with him today.”
