Scottie Scheffler took back the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking on Sunday with the biggest win at The Players Championship in 17 years. This was his sixth win in 13 months, and he took home the biggest single paycheck in the history of the PGA Tour.
Scheffler finished the week with a score of 17 under, which was five shots better than Tyrell Hatton and seven shots better than Viktor Hovland and Tom Hoge. Scheffler was nearly perfect at TPC Sawgrass, making only five bogeys.
And one of those bogeys upset a few people over the weekend. It upset them so much that they accused Scheffler of cheating and even compared him to Patrick Reed.
So, here’s what happened.
Scheffler made a mistake on the 7th hole of the third round at The Players on Saturday. His tee shot on the 434-yard, par-4 hole went into the water on the left. After dropping his ball near the bunker, he seemed to move something out of the way with his hand before hitting his third shot.
Some people were sure the ball moved.
No penalty stroke was given, and Scheffler went on to make a five, which was the only shot he dropped all day. Then, he made birdies on the next two holes and two more on the back nine, giving him a 7-under score of 65.
But a lot of people weren’t ready to just forget about the seventh. And trust me, “He moved his ball when he touched it” was pretty mild compared to some of the other ideas out there.
“Remember this if the cheating dog wins tomorrow,” said one tweet. Again, some were harsher than others. Most of the people who said Scheffler cheated agreed that his ball had moved, and if it had been Patrick Reed or Bryson DeChambeau, a penalty would have been called.
But here’s what’s going on. Even if Scheffler’s ball moved, which isn’t clear from that angle, it didn’t move enough to warrant a penalty. The rules of golf make it clear that a ball can move back and forth when trying to get around an obstacle. It just can’t land in any other place. And if you watch that video, you can see that the ball was in the same place before Scheffler touched it.
And, really, it’s ridiculous to compare this to any of Reed’s obvious mistakes over the years. Also, Scottie Scheffler is not the kind of person who wouldn’t call a penalty on himself. And if you don’t believe me, just look at the 2021 Northern Trust.
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Why Does Scottie Scheffler Shuffle His Feet When He Swings?
Scheffler’s first shot on the par-4 15th hole at Liberty National was into the thick rough to the left of the fairway. His second shot was even farther left into even thicker rough. He found it in the end, but since it took him longer than the three minutes he was given, he called a stroke on himself.
He is just like that.
Even if he had called a shot on himself at The Players, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. The guy won by five strokes, as was already said. Some people will find any way to put someone down, won’t they?
People say that Scottie Scheffler cheated on his way to winning the Players Championship. This story first appeared on Sportscasting | Pure Sports.
