SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER WINS THE TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP IN SUDDEN DEATH PLAYOFF AGAINST TOM KIM - AS DRAMATIC FINALE IS MARRED BY CLIMATE CHANGE PROTESTERS
Scottie Scheffler and Tom Kim toasted their joint birthday with a pizza party ahead of the Travelers Championship earlier this week. On Sunday, it was the World No. 1 spoiling the party for his fellow birthday boy.
The final round of The Travelers Championship proved to be more of a test of will than skill. Luckily for Scheffler, he possesses both.
Used to lie-ins over the weekend, the World No. 1 suffered a rude awakening at the US Open last week. But Sunday, he was back to his regular scheduling. 11:15am: Tee off in the leading group. 4:50pm: Weekly trophy lift.
It’s a routine he’s now gone through six times this season. The one new addition to the programme? A wild playoff shootout against Kim.
Scheffler has a knack for emerging from a cluster of contenders. It’s a story we’ve seen play out at The Players Championship, The Masters and The Memorial this year. And as he stood on the 18th tee with a one-shot lead, The Travelers Championship was set to follow the same storyline - until Kim tore up the script.
Kim, who turned 22 on Friday, had led wire to wire through the first three rounds but he appeared to be struggling to keep pace with Scheffler down the home straight. That is, until the 18th.
The rising star dialed a dart into the green to ten feet of the hole. It was a lifeline, one last chance to tie Scheffler at 22-under and force a playoff. Even the climate protesters who stormed the green with paint bombs could only delay it, not prevent it.
Unnerved by the disturbance, Kim rolled in the birdie putt and sent the World No. 1 to unfamiliar territory - back to the 18th tee.
A playoff, the ultimate test of will. Scheffler passed, Kim failed. The 22-year-old couldn’t replicate his do-or-die miracle as he found the greenside bunker, while Scheffler found the green. From there, the sense of inevitability washed away the excitement of an upset.
The PGA Tour’s final signature event of the season staged a box office thriller Sunday afternoon but by the time the curtain came down on TPC River Highlands, the finale that played out was ultimately an all too familiar one.
The baying Connecticut crowds packing the galleries demanded fireworks. Scheffler and Kim were only happy to oblige. The duo, alongside Akshay Bhatia, engaged in a wild shootout, parrying birdie blow for birdie blow before finishing at 22-under.
Yet, it was the patience, grind and obvious talent of the World No. 1 that won out with Scheffler claiming his sixth victory of the PGA Tour season in a sudden death.
It’s a victory that places him in good company. The list of players with six wins in a season is short. Since 1983, it’s been done nine times by just four people; Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Nick Price, and now Scheffler.
It’s also one that put him through his paces. Teeing off alongside overnight leader Kim, he and Bhatia were one shot back. From there, the game of chess began, TPC River Highlands the board as they matched one another move for move, strategically plotting their way around.
Who would pull ahead first? Who would crack first? By the sixth, the New Englanders packing the fairways still didn’t get their answer with a trio of matching birdies.
Scheffler finally made the first move as he drew level with Kim at the top with a birdie at the seventh. But Bhatia parried with another of his own at the next.
Eventually, it was 54-hole leader Kim who blinked first with a dropped shot on the par-three eighth but even that couldn’t knock him back as just two holes later, he clawed his way back into the race. The grueling mental challenge raged on.
Meanwhile, after bolting to a 59 in Saturday’s third round, Cameron Young admitted that he needed to ‘shoot another low one,’ if he were to cling to the coattails of Kim and co. Through Sunday’s front nine, he looked on course to do just that.
The 27-year-old rattled off four consecutive birdies through the opening four holes, before reaching the turn in five-under for the round with another at the ninth.
Young was motoring. The only snag? Between the ninth and the tenth, he knocked the gearstick into reverse. Any hopes of repeating his feat were extinguished at the tenth with a bogey. They died a death at the 12th with a double. And they were long in their grave at the 16th with another bogey blunder.
All good things must come to an end. For Young, that end just came a little too soon - and at too great a cost. While he tumbled out of contention - and out of the top 10 - the three-way horse race at the top grew. The leaderboard only became more clustered as Patrick Cantlay, Tony Finau and Tom Hoge joined the fray.
Worrying about 22-year-olds running out of steam may seem like a fool’s errand but the Travelers marked Bhatia’s seventh and as the finish line came into sight, it began to show.
While Scheffler and Kim pulled ahead, Bhatia went backwards. As the final grouping rounded TPC River Highlands’ lake, he had slipped to a tie of fifth at 18-under, finishing alongside Cantlay, Finau and Justin Thomas.
Read more 2024-06-23T21:41:37Z dg43tfdfdgfd