It appears as if last week's U.S. Open was the exception and not the rule as it relates to Scottie Scheffler's level of play this year. The No. 1 golfer in the world had won five of his eight prior events before nearly missing the cut last week at Pinehurst No. 2, ultimately placing T41 for his worst finish since the fall of 2022. Scheffler has immediately rebounded by winning a sixth tournament across his last 10 starts on Sunday at the 2024 Travelers Championship.
The fourth round itself was mostly straightforward for Scheffler ... until the end. His card was clean with five birdies and no bogeys, another 65 in a season full of them. He finished at 22 under, one off of Keegan Bradley's scoring record of 23 under from a year ago. But a disruption on the 72nd hole in the form of protesters -- just before Scheffler lined up a potential tournament-winning birdie putt -- briefly threw the event into chaos.
The scene was cleared quickly, though Scheffler's ensuing putt settled just inches from the hole. That allowed 18-, 36- and 54-hole leader Tom Kim to drain a birdie on the last hole of regulation, forcing a playoff. PGA Tour officials cut a new the hole location amid debris left over from the protestors, and the golfers returned to the 18th to begin the sudden death playoff.
Scheffler took care of business in short order with a par, but Kim's approach landed in a bunker and ultimately led to a bogey.
Over the last 19 holes at TPC River Highlands, Scottie Scheffler did what Scottie Scheffler does. He made good decisions and finished second in the field from tee to green. He let everyone around him fall by the wayside until he was the only one left standing in the end. This is not always how it goes -- sometimes Kim will make birdie in the playoff instead of bogey -- but this is basically how it's gone for most of 2024 for Scheffler.
This week's win for Scheffler was historic. All of them are at this point in his season. Since 1983, only three other golfers have won six times in a year. With two months left in the season and around five events remaining on his expected schedule, Scheffler has a chance to move even further up that list.
| Year | Golfer | Overall Wins | Major Wins |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Vijay Singh | 9 | 1 |
| 2000 | Tiger Woods | 9 | 3 |
| 2006 | Tiger Woods | 8 | 2 |
| 1999 | Tiger Woods | 8 | 1 |
| 2007 | Tiger Woods | 7 | 1 |
| 2009 | Tiger Woods | 6 | 0 |
| 2005 | Tiger Woods | 6 | 2 |
| 1994 | Nick Price | 6 | 2 |
| 2024 | Scottie Scheffler | 6 | 1 |
Impressively, all of Scheffler's victories in 2024 have come at big-time events. Of the 13 best field in golf this year, according to the Official World Golf Rankings, Scheffler has won six of them (46%).
The six wins: Four signature events, a major championship (the Masters) and The Players Championship. The six winner's checks have Scheffler earning nearly $28 million for the year, $7 million more than he picked up a year ago when he previously set the all-time record for money earned in a single season.
The craziest realization (and best compliment) about Scottie is that this has become rote. Another week, another Scheffler win. Yawn. That has become a bit of the disposition of golf fans toward what is happening. The numbers belie the routine nature of what he is doing though because the numbers tell the following story: This simply never happens.
It's happening this year, though, and Scheffler is architecting one of the great seasons in PGA Tour history with a chance at a second major championship in just under a month and another Tiger-laden step up the historic ladder. Grade: A+
Here are the rest of our grades for the 2024 Travelers Championship.
2. Tom Kim (-22): It was a tough weekend for Kim, who led this tournament for so long before losing to his birthday buddy and friend, Scheffler, in that playoff. Still, this was Kim's best event of the year by far. He nearly accomplished what nobody else has seemed capable of accomplishing by pulling back even with Scheffler on the 72nd hole and sending the event to a playoff. He now has some confidence built for the summer as he heads to the Open Championship looking to improve upon his T2 finish a year ago. Kim is playing his best golf, and for the last month, he has been the iron player everyone thought he could become a few years ago when he first got going on the PGA Tour. I am broadly neutral on his long-term outlook but impressed by his last several starts. The ceiling is not as high as some might think, but the floor could certainly be higher than I believed. Grade: A+
T3. Tom Hoge, Sungjae Im (-19)
T5. Akshay Bhatia (-18): Bhatia has the look, the charisma and the ball striking ability of a future superstar. It's easy to forget with players like him and Im, who have been on tour since they were teenagers, they are still in their early 20s with decades to go. But Bhatia is four years younger than Viktor Hovland right now. He's making a real leap this year as a player, and he has the numbers to prove it. He's gone from basically being an average (or strokes gained 0.0) PGA Tour player to gaining 1.0 strokes per round on average PGA Tour fields. In other words, that is basically the difference between Martin Laird and Shane Lowry. A big win could be on deck for him. Grade: A
T9. Cameron Young (-17): For a while, it looked like 59-59 was in play for Young. As it was, he still took a look at the all time weekend scoring record of 122 set by Ludvig Aberg at the RSM Classic in a win last fall. Young eventually settled at 125 shots for the weekend. He's had an up and down year to date with some moments of good but a lot of bad in between. For example: He has three top fives worldwide this year but no top 20s since the Masters. This is a good jump start for him going into the summer as he tries to contend, like he did the last two years, at the Open Championship. Grade: A
T27. Ludvig Aberg (-11): The finish was not there, but a week after contending for the U.S. Open, Aberg finished 5th in a field of the best hitters in the world in strokes gained tee to green. He seems to be getting more consistently better as his second year progresses, and it does feel like a monstrous victory is on deck. Grade: B
Scottie gets No. 6 and another signature event trophy. Kyle Porter and Greg DuCharme recap the 2024 Travelers Championship. Follow & listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.