PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Scottie Scheffler’s bid at a Players Championship three-peat ended rather quietly over the weekend.
Scheffler, the No. 1 ranked player in the world who last year became the first player to win back-to-back Players, finished 4-under par for the week, well off the lead.
After what was a trying week for Scheffler, who showed some uncharacteristic frustration in the windy conditions on Saturday, he insisted he doesn’t feel far off the top of his game.
“I feel very close,” Scheffler said. “It was definitely challenging with the winds and getting the ball close to the hole. Definitely started hitting some better shots. Starting to feel more comfortable with my irons.
“The last two weeks I feel like I’ve definitely driven the ball better. Definitely some positives from this week. I’m looking forward to another prep week at home and then getting ready for Houston.”
Scheffler, of course, is truly prepping for the Masters, which he’s won in two of the past three years.
“I walk away from this week feeling close,” Scheffler said. “I feel like there’s some stuff that I need to work on at home, but I feel very close. Overall, I felt like I did some good things this week, felt like I could have done some other things better. But I don’t feel far off by any means.”
Scheffler conceded to feeling himself “getting a bit frustrated” at times, adding, “It’s just one of those things. I’m a competitive guy, and I felt like I could have played a lot better this week. I finished the week 4-under par. I felt like I played some better golf than that.’’
So, Scheffler would fail to make history this week the way he did last year.
“Being able to repeat here was very special and I would have liked to have done it a third time,” he sad. “At the end of the day, I just didn’t have what it took this week.But it’s cool going into the locker room, turning left, going to the champions side, and I have a lot of great memories here from both my wins.”
Tom Hoge held the distinction of having made the past seven cuts at the Players Championship, the longest such streak among the players in the field this week.
Then Hoge almost won the tournament.
In the end, he fell just short, after posting 10-under par as the leader in the clubhouse Sunday afternoon.
When play was suspended for dangerous weather at 1:15 p.m., Hoge was staring at a 16-foot birdie putt on the 18th, his final hole of the tournament, to post 11-under. Hoge than had four hours of the delay to think about it.
When play resumed, his putt slid just past the hole.
“I just kind of checked out, just hung out upstairs in dining and I really didn’t think about it a whole lot, to be honest with you, just wanted to get away from it,” Hoge said. “We’ve hit that putt a lot, so get out and get focused here in the warmup that we had as we got going. Felt like I hit a pretty good putt, just would have liked to have a little more pace to it.”
Hoge shot a 6-under-par 66 for the day, the lowest score in the final round.
“Everything felt pretty good today,” he said. “I would say I felt really good about how I played the last two days.”
Keegan Bradley, the U.S. Ryder Cup captain, had a hole-in-one on the 13th hole Sunday.
