Weekly PGA Recap: Scheffler Strikes Gold

This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.

While playing for pride, with no money on the line, while representing your country on a global stage, Scottie Scheffler showed once again he's the best golfer in the world.

Scheffler shot a back-nine 29 en route to a course-record-tying 62 to overtake some of the best golfers in the world -- but not the best! -- and win the Olympic gold medal for the United States on Sunday at Le Golf National outside Paris.

Tommy Fleetwood won the silver medal for Great Britain and Hideki Matsuyama took the bronze, three years after he experienced bitter disappointment not medaling at the Games in his native Japan. 

While Scheffler played pristine golf -- he made five birdies and four pars on the difficult track laden with rough and water -- other top players crumbled.

• Jon Rahm actually had a four-stroke lead on the back before imploding with four bogeys and a double to tumble completely off the podium.
• Xander Schauffele, coming off his Open Championship win to fuel conversation about maybe snatching Player of the Year honors from Scheffler, bogeyed Nos. 12 and 13 before cratering with a double on 15.
• Rory McIlroy charged back into contention in the most McIlroy way possible with five straight birdies to open the back nine, only to double the 15th and end his chances.
• Even Fleetwood stumbled, though not like the others, losing a share of the lead with Scheffler with a sloppy bogey on 17.

It's understandable how, earlier, Scheffler didn't think he had much of a shot -- for any medal much less gold. At one point, he was six strokes behind Rahm, with many others in between.

"Yeah, I felt like at the time it was definitely slipping away," he said. "I missed a pretty easy look there on No. 9 for birdie and I was already pretty far back. I felt like that was a putt that I really needed to hole and wasn't able to get it done."

At that point, what have you got to lose? So just go for it.

"I saw that Rahm had gotten to 20-under, and so I kind of changed a little bit mentally to just really try to do my best to move my way up the leaderboard, and at one point I didn't even really know if I was in contention or not," Scheffler said. "I just tried to do my best to make some birdies and start moving up and maybe get a medal or something like that just because Jon is such a great player."

Scheffler's performance should once and for all put an end to the 2024 PGA Tour Player of the Year talk, even though the Playoffs are still ahead and the Olympics shouldn't even be part of the criteria. Officially, they aren't, with no FedExCup Points doled out. But the Games are sanctioned by the PGA Tour and it's very hard to unsee someone winning a gold medal even if it shouldn't matter.

But that wasn't at the forefront of Scheffler's thinking on this day.

I would say first and foremost I'm proud of the country I'm from," he said. "I'm proud to be American. I got emotional the other night watching the gold medal ceremony for the women's gymnastics. I take tremendous pride in coming over here and representing my country.

"And yeah, same thing, like when you go to a sporting event, you hear everybody in the stands singing the national anthem, it's a pretty special thing to be a part of, and I think that's something we take tremendous pride in.

"It was just very emotional being up there on stage there as the flag is being raised and sitting there singing the national anthem. Yes, that's definitely one I'll remember for a long time." 

MONDAY BACKSPIN

It's really hard to glean much relevant information from the Olympics for PGA tour and DFS purposes, since the Games are unlike any other tournament. But there are a few instances where we could make some educated forecasts.

Tommy Fleetwood
Fleetwood has shined pretty much everywhere but the PGA Tour (and even there he's done pretty well). He's been great in Europe, great in France (winning the 2017 French Open at Le Golf National), great representing his country in Ryder Cup. And, even though the English and French aren't necessarily the best of friends, he was a crowd favorite outside of Frenchmen Victor Perez and Matthieu Pavon. Fleetwood has had a very good season and sits 30th right now in the FedEx Cup point standings. There's a good chance he makes it to the Tour Championship.

Hideki Matsuyama
Matsuyama was in agony three years ago after failing to medal at the Games in Japan. He couldn't even win bronze after falling in a seven-man playoff that went to C.T. Pan. This time, he held steady, and his post-tournament reaction suggested he was still carrying some unfinished business from Tokyo.

Victor Perez
Of the two Frenchman in the field, reports from the course were that Pavon was the crowd favorite. But as Pavon quickly faded down the leaderboard before tying for 58th (last among all finishers), his countryman soared. Perez shot a 63 on Sunday to agonizingly miss a medal by one shot (or, more precisely, miss a playoff for the bronze medal by one shot). Perez has been a decent player for years, including this year in his debut on the PGA Tour. He sits 71st in the point standings, meaning he has to play this week at the Wyndham to try to get into the top 70 to qualify for the playoffs the following week. 

Rory McIlroy
The back nine on Sunday was McIlroy in a nutshell: birdie five straight holes to appear on the first page of the leaderboard out of nowhere only to find the water on 15 and double bogey to painfully end his chances for a medal. He tied for fifth. If this quote from the Northern Irishman doesn't sum him up – agony to ecstasy to agony in a span of 10 seconds – nothing will.

"Yeah, when I got to 10 and 11, I looked at the board and I was 14 and Jon had got to 20. So I was like -- I didn't feel like I had a chance.

"Then I looked at the board again after I birdied 14 and I was one behind and I was like, holy sh-it, what just happened. Even that wedge shot on 15, I hit the shot I wanted to hit. The two boys in front of me, Nicolai and Hideki, they got their balls up in the air a little bit more and the wind carry it, and I saw they went like 25, 30 feet past.

"I hit the shot I wanted to hit but I didn't get the ball in the air enough for the wind to carry it the extra three or four yards I needed to. Tried to stay aggressive and land a wedge between the front edge and the hole. Missed my spot by nearly three or four yards and that ended up costing me a medal."

Jon Rahm
For more than 3 ½ rounds, the Spaniard looked like the powerful golfer who was the best in the world for a while. Now with LIV, this was one of the few times for him to compete against the best, though he had his chances in the majors and came up very flat. Anyway, Rahm led by four strokes until a sudden and complete collapse, and probably the only thing that prevented one of those Rahm on-course meltdowns was the stage he was on. He finished in a tie for fifth and that was unfathomable about two hours earlier.

Nicolai Hojgaard
The 23-year-old Dane hadn't a top-10 since Torrey Pines – in January. He tied for seventh to move back inside the top-50 in the world at No. 47. He is also 80th in the FedEx Cup point standings and will quickly shift gears to the Wyndham in an effort to crack the top-70.

Tom Kim
Much was made of Kim needing to win a gold medal to someday soon avoid a military commitment in South Korea. He tied for eighth and afterward said that had no bearing on him whatsoever: "Not at all. I wasn't really thinking about that at all. Just try and make a medal for my country and not myself."

Corey Conners
This is a big couple of months for Conners. He represented Canada at the Olympics – he tied for ninth – and next month will play the Presidents Cup in Montreal. That might be even more pressure-packed for him than the Olympics.

Xander Schauffele
The defending Olympic champion for the U.S. saw his short-lived bid to wrest Player of the Year honors from Scheffler end on the back-nine, where he tumbled from gold medal-contention into a tie for ninth. Yes, it was a stunning four-over, four-hole collapse from a guy who's been, well, gold all year. But Schauffele will be back on everyone's radar in two weeks at the FedEx St. Jude.

Wyndham Clark
Clark caught a lot of flak this week from people who didn't think he deserved to be on the U.S. team. Yes, he's been slumping badly lately. But he had a great first half of the PGA Tour season and is in the top-5 in both the world rankings and FedEx Cup standings. After an opening 75, he could've just gone through the motions the rest of the way. But he went 68-65-65 to soar into a tie for 14th. That could be the boost he needs to turn it around in the playoffs. 

"I think it's more pride for myself and my country," Clark said. "I wanted to make sure that I showed up for my country. I didn't want anyone to think that I was doing this as just an exhibition or just coming here to have fun. I was serious about it. I was very pissed after round one because I wanted to medal. So I'm really bummed about it.

"But at the same time, I said this is for something greater than myself. It's for my country and it also builds a lot of momentum for the Playoffs that we have coming up."

C.T. Pan
The bronze medalist from Chinese Taipei in 2021 tied for 18th. Pan is is among only four male golfers to have played in all three Olympics since the sport returned to the Games in 2016. The others: Gavin Green of Malaysia, who tied for 33rd; and Ryan Fox of New Zealand and Fabrizio Zanotti of Paraguay, both of whom tied for 35th.

Collin Morikawa
One of the big favorites entering the week because the course was such a good fit for his game, Morikawa never got anything going. He tied for 24th, the lowest of the four Americans in the field.

Matt Fitzpatrick
The Englishman withdrew after Saturday's round, an 81 that including a quadruple-bogey, citing a preexisting thumb strain. That followed a 64 on Friday. The injury was not public knowledge. Fitzpatrick made the cut at the Open Championship, and the Scottish Open before that, and the U.S. Open before that, albeit finishing outside the top-35 in all of them. Before that, he tied for fifth at the Memorial, so presumably the injury has happened since then. Regardless, we'll have to monitor this for the upcoming playoffs.