SCHEFFLER PROVING HIMSELF TO BE A REAL PLAYER

Provided the explosiveness with which Scottie Scheffler took care of business in the finale of THE PLAYERS Championship five consecutive birdies midway through the fourth round lifted him from a tenuous two-stroke lead into a commanding five-shot cushion you might wonder if there is a behavioral pattern to this 26-year-old.

- Jim McCabe

Fact is, there is. It’s sort of how he operates ferociously and with an emphatic fervor that shows a disregard for his ages, no matter how tender they are or were.

Consider, for instance, that he has now won six of his last 27 PGA TOUR starts dating to the Waste Management Phoenix Open of Feb. 13, 2022.

Oh, and barely five years removed from his graduation from the University of Texas, Scheffler has already been No. in the Official World Golf Rankings for a whopping 32 weeks. The win at THE PLAYERS pushed him back into the top spot.)

Then there’s the reality that he has never, ever believed he was too young to push the older guys. At 10 years old, he would challenge a PGA TOUR player named Joel Edwards to stand on the range at Royal Oaks CC in Dallas, Texas, and try to hit a distance pole with wedge shots.

“He cost me a fortune. I used to carry a bunch of quarters because I knew I’d get my butt beat,” said Edwards, who was 35 years older.

And if Edwards wasn’t around, Scheffler would pick on another PGA TOUR member 25 years older. He was tenacious. You couldn’t intimidate him,” said Harrison Frazar, who got outsmarted by Scheffler and lost a sleeve of balls to a kid who was young enough to be his son.

Craziest thing of all, in sweltering Dallas head, the kid was the only one on the range wearing long pants. He always wore long pants,” said Edwards. He looked like a Tour player at 10.”

So maybe all of that explains why now that it’s 16 years since he first looked like a TOUR player, Scottie Scheffler is a TOUR dynamo with a penchant for overpowering courses and competition.