American Scottie Scheffler won the Players Championship, golf’s unofficial fifth major, by five strokes to take back the world number-one ranking from Spain’s Jon Rahm.
It’s the sixth PGA tour title for Scheffler in 13 months for a player whose stock continues to rise.
Scheffler, the overnight leader, began his final round with a two-stroke lead, he went on to fire a final round 3 under par 69 to finish on 17 under par.
He needed to finish a tie for fifth or better to reclaim the top spot on the world rankings, and fired off five consecutive birdies from the 8th hole to build up a healthy lead.
Scheffler was always in control, and not troubled by a late charge from England’s Tyrell Hatton, whose final round 65 saw him to 12 under, five adrift of Scheffler.
It was his sixth career title on the PGA Tour and 2nd in his last four starts. Scheffler also joins Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to hold both the Masters’ title and Players Championship at the same time.
“Long day tough day I knew the conditions were going to get really hard late and I did a really good job of staying patient and not force things and I got hot in the middle of the round and tried to put things away as quickly as I could.”
Norway’s Viktor Hovland and American Tom Hoge, who carded the Players Championship record low round of 10-under 62 in the third round, finished in a tie for third, seven shots behind at 10-under.
A message from the champ #THEPLAYERS | @PGATOUR pic.twitter.com/5Ox6h7TlyA
— THE PLAYERS (@THEPLAYERSChamp) March 12, 2023
