Weekly Recap: Super Scheffler

Heading into the historic first full-field designated event in PGA Tour history, the focus was on the impending collision between the world's two hottest players, No. 1 Rory McIlroy and third-ranked Jon Rahm, each of whom had won three of his past seven worldwide starts.

The guy sitting in between them at No. 2 in the world was just fine without any pre-tournament attention.

Scottie Scheffler, said No. 2 player, is not nearly as splashy or quote-worthy as McIlroy or Rahm, and flies about as low under the radar as an elite golfer can.

On Sunday at TPC Scottsdale, Scheffler made a big splash on everyone's radar, successfully defending his title at the WM Phoenix Open to supplant McIlroy and reclaim the No. 1 ranking in the world.

Scheffler grabbed control with a 64 on  Friday and never let go, culminating with a rather stress-free two-stroke win over not McIlroy and not Rahm, but 223rd-ranked Nick Taylor. Rahm finished third while McIlroy was far back.

The big Texan won $3.6 million out of the total $20 million purse, which now is the going rate for the Tour's new designated tournaments in which (almost) all the top players converge to create super-loaded fields. There will be another one this week at the Genesis Invitational, and if Scheffler plays like he did at Phoenix, he could very well win again.

He led the elite field in Strokes Gained: Approach and SG: Tee-to-Green, was third in greens in regulation and 13th in SG: Putting. There was no bigger putt than a 15-footer for par on the vaunted 16th hole, when Taylor had a chance to close to within a stroke of the lead. But Scheffler sank the putt, Taylor missed his par putt, and then Scheffler easily closed things out with a final-round 65.

Scheffler had had a pretty fair stretch of golf himself last year, one that was very similar to what McIlroy and Rahm had been doing. He won four of six tournaments, beginning at Phoenix and ending at the Master, to take over the top spot in the rankings.

That win at Augusta, 10 months ago, had been his last until Sunday. But Scheffler never stopped being great. He had a number of near misses, including runner-up at the U.S. Open.

The Official World Golf Ranking has always been at least a little suspect in how it gauges who's best, and the late 2022 overhaul did little to assuage those concerns among golf fans. Regardless of how you feel about the system, it's safe to say that Scheffler, McIlroy and Rahm are close enough that there could be musical chairs atop the rankings over the coming months, even this week at the Genesis Invitational.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Nick Taylor
Taylor is a two-time PGA Tour winner, so its arguable whether he considers this his best week ever. But it's inarguable if this was his biggest payday. It was. $2.18 million. The 34-year-old Canadian has played in 235 events, and this one tournament counts for nearly 20 percent of his career earnings, which now surpass $11 million. More importantly for our purposes, the runner-up continues a very strong start to 2023 for Taylor, who was seventh at the Sony and 20th at Pebble Beach, where he has one of his two career wins. He soared from 223rd in the world rankings to a career-high 73rd. Taylor has been on Tour almost a decade, so it takes quite a bit of game just to do that. But he's never been a great player, just a decent player with a handful of great weeks through the years. Can he suddenly, in his mid-30s, find a new gear. It's possible but unlikely.

Jon Rahm
Rahm clearly was not his sharpest. He ranked 22nd in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach and 34th in greens in regulation. That simply will not cut it in an elite field on a course that puts a premium on ball striking. That Rahm finished third is a testament how good he can be even with his A game. His putting was outstanding, ranking seventh in the field, or he would not have finished as high as he did.

Justin Thomas
Thomas made a late charge to finish solo fourth. He now has three top-5s at Phoenix in the past five years. We're now into the second year of the superstar partnership between Thomas and caddie Bones Mackay. They won the PGA Championship together last May, but that took a lot of good fortune with all the leaders coming back to the pack. That's their one win, and it's safe to say the results overall have not been as good as expected. 

Jason Day
Day continues to be one of the surprise stories of the still young PGA Tour season. He finished fifth, which followed a T7 at the Farmers and five other top-25s already in 2022-23. Day is now on the verge of re-entering the top-50 in the world – he's 57th. His back appears sound and so does his game. Not sure whether at age 35 Day can become a top-10 player again, but he surely could reach the top-25. It's all about his back.

Jordan Spieth
Before getting too excited over Spieth's tie for sixth, consider that it was his first top-10 anywhere in the world in seven months. Seems impossible. But it's true. Spieth was a ball-striking machine all week. He ranked second or third in the field in green in regulation, Strokes Gained: Approach and SG: Tee-to-Green. But Spieth ranked outside the top-50 in SG: Putting, and that rarely will be enough to truly contend. He also ranked 15th in driving distance, which is good enough to compete this week at Riviera. But not without better putting.
 
Sam Burns
With two wins in 2021 and two more in 2022, Burns is clearly a great talent. But a lot like Max Homa, Burns doesn't contend often. He wins or he's farther back. At Phoenix, Burns tied for sixth, which was his best result in eighth months. Hard to believe, right? He tied for 11th at the Farmers Insurance Open, and he doesn't go back-to-back like this often. Might he be turning a corner? Check back after the Genesis Invitational.

Sungjae Im
Im followed up a tie for fourth at the Farmers with a tie for sixth at Phoenix. And all it's gotten him is moving from 19th in the world to 18th.

Tyrrell Hatton
Hatton has been good at piling up top-25s on the PGA Tour. Top-10s have been far rarer. In his 2023 Tour debut, the Englishman tied for sixth. 

Rickie Fowler
Fowler continued his impressive turnaround with a tie for 10th. It included a hole-in-one at the 216-yard seventh hold on Sunday. His tee-to-green game has been good all season, but his putting had remained way off. At Phoenix, besides ranking third in the field in approach, Fowler was 13th in SG: Putting. Just another good sign for Fowler, who's now up to 80th in the world.

Rory McIlroy
McIlroy opened with a 73 on Thursday and was never in the conversation this week. He wound up tied for 32nd. McIlroy's game is great enough to contend anywhere, but he is more suited for this week's course, Riviera. 

Collin Morikawa
Morikawa missing the cut was the biggest stunner of the first two rounds. He had two near-wins already in 2023. But his numbers were way off, ranking 39th in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach and 72nd in Tee-to-Green. Even his putting was terrible. Morikawa now heads to Riviera, another track that suits his game and where he was co-runner-up a year ago.

Patrick Cantlay
Cantlay does not miss many cuts, so doing so anywhere is a surprise but especially at the tournament where he was runner-up a year ago. This was his first MC since the PGA Championship back in May. So this was probably just an off week. To put things into context, Cantlay missed only two cuts in 2022 and over a six-year period from 2017-2022 missed only 12 total.

Shane Lowry
Lowry surprisingly announced a switch in caddies days before the tournament, breaking with longtime bagman Bo Martin in favor of veteran Darren Reynolds. Lowry missed the cut in Dubai last time out with Martin, but they had won recently in September – Lowry's first win since he and Martin took home the 2019 Open Championship. At Phoenix, Lowry missed the cut with Reynolds on board. He has said Reynolds will be his guy at least through the Masters. The caddie switch was a surprise, so something is amiss with Lowry and bears monitoring.

Tommy Fleetwood
On a course where quality ball-striking is virtually mandatory, you would not think Fleetwood would miss the cut. But he lost more than a shot Off-the-Tee in the first two rounds of his 2023 stateside debut. Mixing between the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, Fleetwood hadn't missed a weekend since the U.S. Open last June.

Taylor Montgomery
Montgomery is a great putter with very suspect accuracy from the tee and fairway. So this was not the week to jump on board, with ball-striking such a key to success at TPC Scottsdale. at such a premium. Unsurprisingly, Montgomery missed the cut.  After a long stretch of top-15s, he had a T31 at the Farmers and now this. It may be nothing but a blip, but it also may be the stronger fields catching up with the PGA Tour rookie.

Maverick McNealy
McNealy withdrew from Pebble Beach with his left shoulder bothering him and did so again at Phoenix, and now has withdrawn from this week's Genesis Invitational. So this has the makings of a real issue for McNealy.