After picking up his eighth victory of the year and amassing over $60 million on the season at the Tour Championship, the last thing Scottie Scheffler wanted to talk about on Sunday was the one bad shot he hit all week. But those of us in the media tend to gravitate toward the negative.
There was very little negative in Scheffler’s final-round 67, which saw him reach 30 under for the week, which includes his starting strokes score of 10 under. At the newly renovated and surely more fiery East Lake, 20 under over four rounds is golfing your ball, which is what Scheffler does.
But there was one moment on Sunday in Atlanta that had everyone scratching their head – a Scheffler shank from a greenside bunker at the short par-4 eighth. A take-your-breath-away-type hosel rocket:
No one is immune to the shank.
Not even Scottie Scheffler. pic.twitter.com/RVlQfZyzjG
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 1, 2024
That led to a second straight bogey that saw Scheffler’s once massive seven-shot lead shrink to two. Was it happening again? Was the clear best player of the year going to throw away the end-of-year crown?
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Yeah, not quite. Scheffler played the rest of his round four under, bogey-free, a final-stamp on an all-time great year. One reporter was curious enough to ask him what the hell happened on the par-4 eighth, though, and it led to an incredible exchange. Scheffler went full Taurean Prince:
Scottie Scheffler talked through his shank on the 8th hole in the most Scottie Scheffler way possible. 😂 pic.twitter.com/nsmcN2Tyc2
— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) September 2, 2024
Handled perfectly. And good job by ESPN reporter Mark Schlabach, who asked the question, taking it all in stride. Scheffler’s smile at the end indicated it was all in good fun.
Oh, and if you’re wondering what “full Taurean Prince” meant, our old pal Claire Rogers was the first to make the comparison on Twitter. Prince was the basketball player from Baylor who hilariously described what a rebound was when a reporter asked “how does Yale out-rebound Baylor?” when Prince’s 5-seeded Baylor Bears were upset by 12-seeded Yale in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament:
Same vibes pic.twitter.com/FwKhYv43uu
— claire rogers (@kclairerogers) September 2, 2024