CHARLOTTE, N.C. — John Larm bowed his head and walked the 16th fairway sloping at the Cool Hollow Country Club. The stern expression he hid under his bright pink hat gave nothing as a sound that came over the water from the nearby 14th green.
“Even if you don’t want to look at the leaderboard,” Rahm said, “The crowd will let you know.”
For a while, Rahm seemed able to do things he could not think of. They tracked the number one player in the world who started five shots with Rahm’s five shots in Sunday’s major championship. Thanks to Schaeffler’s uncharacteristic 2-over front nine, after tying the lead on hole 11, Rahm seemed ready to gain momentum and head downhill on his way to the Wanamaker Trophy.
But to beat Schaeffler you need more than a single good golf. The currently three major winner trademarks are not flashes, but stability and an eerie ability to not flap wings in the face of mistakes. The pressure he places on his enemies comes organically. His game is so sound and bulletproof that those trying to beat him know that the effort required to make the best player in the world last longer will be Hercules.
Schaeffler’s inevitability was hanging in the humid Charlotte Air Sunday. When Rahm was walking from the 16th green with a bogey, the Spaniard couldn’t help but let the break when Schaeffler played 14 and 15 at 2 under. His tee shot found water on par 3 17th hole. game over.
“This back nine will be something I will remember for a long time,” Schaeffler said. “I remember that for a while to step up when I needed it to the fullest.”
19 years ago, during the 2006 PGA Championship, Luke Donald saw a similar kind of film unfold. Donald – the 10th player in the world then took the lead after 36 holes, shooting 66 at Medina Country Club on Saturday to 14 under. There was only one problem. Tiger Woods shot a course record 65 that day and shot to head to Sunday for a lead with Donald. At that point, Woods was 11-0 in the majors, who held at least a 54-hole lead share.
“Tiger had this kind of aura and I feel like he needs to do more than he really needs to improve his game to defeat him,” Donald said on Sunday after finishing his final round at Quazur Hollow. “And I think he understood that.”
That Sunday, Woods and Donald played in their final pairing, with Woods shooting 68 in second place to secure their 12th major victory with five shots. On Sunday, Charlotte’s Schaeffler is currently 3-0, taking a 54-hole lead in the majors and finished with the same winning margin: five strokes.
“He just played his game and didn’t make too many mistakes and wore you. I went through that in 2006,” Donald said of Woods. “I think Scotty is a similar kind of player when he gets the lead.”
A lot has happened since Schaeffler won the 2024 Masters and placed him firmly on top of the sport. Xander Schauffele scored two majors, Bryson Dechambeau reached two majors, and Rory McIlroy finally secured his green jacket and grand slam.
Schaeffler was not forgotten during that period – he won six tours and three more top-10 finishes in the majors – but a small story was beginning to sprout.
The rahm was Schaeffler’s foil on Sunday. They placed green jackets on each other’s shoulders and took part in the tournament with two majors. Now Schaeffler not only slides up Rahm, but also Deccanbo, Schaufele, Morikawa and Justin Thomas. He’s a player of his generation and everyone else is simply trying to catch up.
“It felt like I was pushing against him,” said Decanbeau, tied up in second place. “I need to be more accurate, make myself more consistent and fix what I can fix to get up there.
For the past 24 months, no one has received more praise from his peers than Schaeffler.
“I played a lot of golf with him. Every shot has strength and it seems like I’ve found that path there,” Sam Burns said.
I didn’t feel that none of Schaeffler was off the rails. He wasn’t upset even after making three bogeys on the front nine and fighting a left mistake on the swing. He had been moving his hips more efficiently towards his targets with coach Randy Smith all week, but for a while it seemed like bad habits were once again on his swing. But then Schaeffler stepped up to the 10th tee, setting more aims at his Cadditted Scott’s proposal, making sure he made a full-body turn and striped it. Something has been clicked. After three more birdies, 15 holes, Schaeffler’s victory felt inevitable again.
“I felt as difficult as fighting for tournaments in my career,” said Schaeffler, who was considered a misfit before the driver’s tournament, forcing him to play with something new this week. “It’s always difficult to finish a major championship. I didn’t have the best of my own, but I kept myself. I was fighting the swing for the first few days.”
Schaeffler has already collected comparisons with Woods over the past two seasons for his elite ball strike. But it’s similar to what Woods did with his Prime that he can win without the best and then win a lot when he takes advantage of it.
“He’s not too high or too low, but his game speaks for himself,” Donald said. “And he hates losing.”
When Schaeffler gained more wins and became a fixture in the sports spotlight, he allowed him to show and tell him exactly how much he wanted. At the 2024 Masters, he shared how nervous he was and what he hoped he didn’t want to win as badly as he was. On Sunday, Schaeffler wiped out tears on the way up the 18th fairway of Quazur Hollow before threw his hat into the green in ecstasy, screaming after the final putt fell. He is no longer a two-time master winner, but now he is a three-time major champion at age 27 in the middle of the Grand Slam.
“Sometimes I want to not care the same way as myself. “If I can show up and win or lose, it’s much easier. I’m still going to go home and do anything. Sometimes I feel that way.
“He wants to win every time he goes out here, whether it’s golf, pickleball or whatever. “I keep equating it with other sports. You’ve got a guy in basketball. You always know who it is on the team.”
If McIlroy’s emotional victory at Masters this year was the end of one storyline, Schaeffler’s victory at Quazul Hollow reminded me in a timely manner that only grew stronger. McIlroy may have had the best year in the sport, but the title of the best athlete in the world still belongs to Schaeffler.