Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior WriterJul 21, 2024, 05:56 PM ET
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Senior college football writer
Author of seven books on college football
Graduate of the University of Georgia
TROON, Scotland — Another major championship season has come and gone, and this one will be remembered as one that was dominated by American golfers, especially Xander Schauffele.
After waiting seven years to win his first major championship, Schauffele won two — the PGA Championship and The Open — in the span of two months. He captured the Claret Jug with a 2-stroke win over Justin Rose and Billy Horschel at Royal Troon Golf Club on Sunday.
Schauffele said he dreamed about winning The Open since he was a teenager in San Diego.
“I sat down with my dad when I was maybe 15 and 16, and we started to really hash out some goals and dreams of what I’d like to do,” Schauffele said. “I was on the couch with my dad a lot watching other guys win majors and win big tournaments.
“My dad and I, we’ve definitely talked about this. We’ve watched that walk up 18 pretty much every year until I’ve played in The Open. It’s definitely something that we’ve both dreamt of.”
It’s the seventh consecutive major won by an American golfer, the longest such streak since they captured 13 straight from 1974 to 1977.
Here’s a look back at the best and worst from the majors this season:
Best performer: Schauffele
World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffer has won six times this season, but Schauffele dominated the majors, becoming the first golfer since Brooks Koepka in 2018 to capture more than one major in the same season.
At the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, Schauffele closed with a 6-under 65 to defeat Bryson DeChambeau by 1 stroke. Then Schauffele carded the same score in the final round of The Open at Royal Troon Golf Club on Sunday to become the Champion Golfer of the Year.
Schauffele is the first golfer in the Masters era (since 1934) to have multiple final rounds of 65 or better in the majors in the same year.
The only other golfer who had multiple final rounds of 65s or better while winning majors was Jack Nicklaus, who did it at the 1967 U.S. Open and 1986 Masters.
Schauffele’s 72-hole total of 21-under 263 at the PGA Championship set a scoring record for the majors, beating the previous best of 20 under by Koepka in the 2018 PGA Championship and Henrik Stenson in the 2016 Open Championship.
Best finish: U.S. Open
It was a thrilling 18-hole duel between DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy, the face of the PGA Tour, at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, one of the most iconic American golf courses.
McIlroy started the final round three strokes behind DeChambeau, but took a two-shot lead with five holes to play after carding four birdies in a five-hole stretch around the turn. After both golfers made bogeys on the par-3 15th — McIlroy cooked his tee shot over the green; DeChambeau missed a 4-footer for par — the real drama came over the final three holes.
Playing in the pairing ahead of DeChambeau, McIlroy missed a par putt of 2 feet, 6 inches on the 16th, dropping him into a tie with DeChambeau. After making a nice up-and-down save for par from a greenside bunker on the par-3 17th, McIlroy missed another short putt on the 18th — this one from 3 feet, 9 inches.
Needing to make par on the final hole, DeChambeau pulled his tee shot behind a wiregrass bush to the left. He blasted out into a fairway bunker, setting up the most memorable shot and up-and-down of his career. He made par to finish 6 under 274, one better than McIlroy.
It was DeChambeau’s second U.S. Open title — he also won at Winged Foot Golf Club in New York in 2020. He became the second player from LIV Golf to win a major, joining Koepka, who won his third PGA Championship title last year.
Best shot: DeChambeau’s bunker shot on No. 18 at the U.S. Open
DeChambeau called his 55-yard bunker shot from the 18th fairway on the final hole of the U.S. Open “probably the best shot of his life.”
It will be remembered as one of the most iconic shots in the tournament’s history.
Before DeChambeau pulled back his 55-degree wedge, his caddie, Greg Bodine, told him: “Bryson, just get it up-and-down. That’s all you’ve got to do. You’ve done this plenty of times before. I’ve seen some crazy shots from you from 50 yards out of a bunker.”
THE BUNKER SHOT OF HIS CAREER!@b_dechambeau has this putt left to win the U.S. Open! pic.twitter.com/Vleb6k6PvO
— U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 16, 2024
DeChambeau did it again, hitting his shot to 3 feet, 11 inches. He made the putt to win his second major.
“From a technicality standpoint, you can’t miss it a millimeter behind the ball or a millimeter too close to the ball,” DeChambeau explained. “From 60 yards with an open face, it’s an explosion shot, and if you catch it just a little thin, I’m hitting it into that clubhouse. There is no room for error. Very, very little room for error.
“For it to even go that far out of a bunker takes a pretty darned good amount of strength. If I chunked it, too, it’s short, hits the front edge and comes right back down. Now I’m trying to get up-and-down just to get into a playoff.”
Best second nine: Scheffler at the Masters
Having already won two tournaments in March and tying for second at the Texas Children’s Houston Open, after he missed a 5-foot birdie putt that would have forced a playoff, golf fans couldn’t have known that Scheffler was only getting started.
The world No. 1 golfer grabbed a 1-shot lead heading into the final round of the 88th Masters at Augusta National Golf Club and seemed well on his way to winning a second green jacket in three years.
But a couple of mistakes on the front — yes, he is human — led to bogeys on Nos. 4 and 7, leaving him in a four-way tie for first. But Scheffler quickly answered with three consecutive birdies around the turn. He made a 10-footer on the par-5 eighth, nearly holed out for eagle on the par-4 ninth and then sank a 9-footer on the par-4 10th to seize control again.
As Ludvig Åberg, Max Homa and Collin Morikawa piled up mistakes, Scheffler added three more birdies on Nos. 13, 14 and 16 to put them away. He carded a 3-under 33 on the back for a 4-under 68, beating Aberg by four strokes.
At 27, Scheffler became the fourth-youngest golfer to win multiple green jackets; only Nickluas (25 years, 81 days), Tiger Woods (25 years, 100 days) and Seve Ballesteros (26 years, 2 days) were younger.
Best tee shot: Si Woo Kim’s ace at The Open
The South Korean golfer made the longest hole-in-one in Open Championship history when he aced the par-3 17th in the third round. It was the first ace on the 238-yard 17th hole in an Open at Royal Troon Golf Club.
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 20, 2024
Best amateur: Neal Shipley
The 2023 U.S. Amateur runner-up was low amateur at both the Masters and U.S. Open, becoming only the seventh golfer to accomplish the feat. Ken Venturi (1956), Nicklaus (1960), Phil Mickelson (1991), Matt Kuchar (1998) and Viktor Hovland (2019) also did it.
At Augusta National, Shipley played the final round with 15-time major champion Tiger Woods — and beat him by four strokes. Shipley posted a 1-over 73 over the final 18 holes to tie for 53rd at 12-over 300. He received the Silver Cup at Butler Cabin, leading to an iconic TV moment.
pic.twitter.com/yioTFb6dHi
— Paige Spiranac (@PaigeSpiranac) April 15, 2024
Shipley, who played in college at James Madison and Ohio State, tied for 26th in the U.S. Open at 6 over.
Best qualifier: Daniel Brown in The Open
European golf fans might have known about Brown before The Open, but those in the U.S. probably confused him with the thriller novelist with the same name. Brown, who grew up on a farm in England, had struggled with his form and battled injuries this season. He had to make a 20-foot putt on the final hole of qualifying to make The Open field.
The 29-year-old didn’t seem overwhelmed at Royal Troon, posting a 6-under 65 to grab the first-round lead over Shane Lowry. Brown stayed near the top of the leaderboard by following that with 72-73 and was just one stroke out of the lead entering the final round.
Brown admits he didn’t handle the wind on the front nine as well on Sunday. He made the turn at 3-over 39 and never got back into the mix. He finished even-par 284, tying for 10th. It was a heck of an achievement, despite his final-round disappointment.
Worst performance: Wyndham Clark
When Clark picked up his third PGA Tour victory by winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Feb. 4 and was runner-up at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players, it could have been argued that the 2023 U.S. Open winner at Los Angeles Country Club was the second-best golfer in the world behind only Scheffler.
But golf can tend to be cruel, even for the best players in the world, and Clark limped through the four majors this summer. He was a combined 39 over while missing the cut at the Masters, PGA Championship and The Open and tying for 56th at the U.S. Open.
Worst collapse: McIlroy in the U.S. Open
Other golfers and former PGA Tour pro Brad Faxon, McIlroy’s putting coach, came to his defense after he missed two short ones at Pinehurst No. 2. Yes, the putts were probably more difficult than what fans saw on TV, but McIlroy hadn’t missed a putt inside 4 feet in 496 chances until that point this season.
— U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 16, 2024
His collapse was painful to watch because everyone knew what was at stake for the four-time major champion. He was on the cusp of ending a nearly 10-year drought in the big four and all but had one hand on the U.S. Open trophy when he walked to the No. 14 tee. It was his best chance to finally win his first major since capturing the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in August 2014.
Instead, after blowing a 2-stroke lead in the U.S. Open and missing the cut at The Open at Royal Troon, McIlroy will carry a nearly 11-year drought in the majors into the 2025 Masters.
Strangest moment: Scheffler’s arrest at the PGA Championship
Scheffler was stopped and arrested following a traffic misunderstanding outside Valhalla Golf Club around 6 a.m. on May 17. Traffic was stopped after a man was struck and killed by a shuttle bus about an hour earlier.
A Louisville police officer said he attempted to stop Scheffler, who drove around traffic as he made his way to the club’s entrance. The officer, Bryan Gillis, said Scheffler ignored his command and that the golfer’s courtesy SUV knocked him down or dragged him to the ground.
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Scheffler relieved arrest is behind him, but still ‘reliving’ it
Scottie Scheffler is relieved the charges related to his arrest at the PGA Championship were dropped, but says the experience was “traumatic.”
Scheffler was handcuffed and transported to a downtown correctional facility. Scheffler was charged with second-degree assault of a police officer, third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving, and disregarding traffic signals from an officer directing traffic. The assault charge was a felony; the others were misdemeanors.
Scheffler was released at 8:40 a.m. ET Friday without bail — after his mugshot went viral — and arrived at Valhalla less than an hour before his scheduled tee time. He managed to post a 6-under 66, putting him 3 shots out of the lead. He posted a 1-over 73 in the third round, and ended up tying for eighth, eight shots behind Schauffele.
Jefferson County prosecutors dropped charges against Scheffler on May 29.
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