Scottie Scheffler ended his campaign at The Open in an embarrassing manner as he failed to hit past the women's tee on the 72nd hole. The world No. 1 remained in contention for victory at Royal Troon heading into the last round.
But Scheffler endured a challenging Sunday, unable to capitalise on his consistent form from previous days to vie for a third major title. He began the day two-under-par, just two shots adrift of overnight leader Billy Horschel.
Scheffler's solid performance across the first eight holes was undone when he double-bogeyed the ninth, a hole he'd previously parred in earlier rounds. Although he managed to find a birdie on the 16th, bringing his score back to three-under where it started the day, by that point he was out of the running for the Claret Jug.
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On the final hole of the course, a visibly frustrated Scheffler concluded his tournament run with a whimper, only managing to top his tee shot 150 yards on the last hole. The PGA Tour star knew instantly he'd botched his strike, dropping his club and scratching his back as he watched the ball fly flat and veer left.
The TV cameras initially struggled to locate the ball but eventually found the moment it landed in the heavily overgrown grass near the women's tee mark, having to zoom in painfully close to even spot where the ball had landed, reports the Mirror.
The mis-hit tee shot on the 18th led to a double bogey, leaving Scheffler disheartened with one-over for the round and one-under overall. Had he managed a bogey, seventh place would have been solely his.
Instead, he found himself in a three-way tie with adversaries Im Sung-jae and Jon Rahm. Each ended the fourth round with a respective two-under and three-under finish.
Frustrated by his result, the Masters champion blanked the press in the mixed zone following the tournament's conclusion. Victory, meanwhile, was claimed by Xander Schauffele, who added to his previous PGA Championship triumph earlier in May.
His stellar performance in the final round saw him end on an impressive nine-under, only just eclipsing challengers Justin Rose and Horschel who had to settle for joint second.
Confused, Scheffler’s tee shot on 18 was different on the world feed and telecast. This was from the world feed pic.twitter.com/mC65J0K7c7
— Andy Johnson (@AndyTFE) July 21, 2024
Commenting on his splendid victory, Schauffele pinpointed his calm state of mind as crucial to his remarkable year. "Sometimes things go your way, and sometimes they don't. When you're playing -- today I felt like I really controlled a lot of it," he said.
"I kind of grabbed onto it, and there was no chance I was going to let go of it. I was pretty aware of that and really wanted to make sure I did that.
"But for the most part, all those tough losses in the past or those moments where I let myself slip up and dream too early on that back nine, I was able to reel myself in today and make sure that didn't happen."
