Scottie Scheffler Could Have Relaxed at the RBC Heritage. Instead He Dominated, Again.

No one expects a major winner to keep it rolling the very next week, but the world No. 1 is continuing to excel in ways not seen since Tiger Woods's era of dominance.

Apr 21, 2024; Hilton Head, South Carolina, USA; Scottie Scheffler stands on the first tee during the / Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

Scottie Scheffler had every reason to cruise through a week at Hilton Head. He was coming off an exhausting and emotional victory at the Masters, from where he rushed home to Texas to spend time with his expecting wife before jetting back to South Carolina, only to get in nine holes of practice in the Wednesday pro-am.

If Scheffler was exhausted and didn’t want to put forth all the energy needed to contend again, so be it. Nobody would be surprised. Nobody would certainly hold it against him.

Dealing with the aftermath of a major victory allows for one to, perhaps, revel in the accomplishment.

There’s a reason why nobody had won a tournament the week after the Masters since Bernhard Langer nearly 40 years ago. And there’s a reason nobody had won the week after winning any major since Tiger Woods in 2007.

Winning takes its toll. And winning a major even more so. The physical strain of Augusta National is enough. The mental strain of any major championship is but an added aspect.

All of which makes Scheffler’s victory at the RBC Heritage all the more impressive.

Scottie Scheffler's incredible 2024 continued with a Monday win at the RBC Heritage. / Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

The only thing he couldn’t beat was the weather.

A storm blew in Sunday afternoon, but when it did, Scheffler had a five-shot lead. The three holes he had to finish Monday morning were but a formality.

MORE: Final results, payouts from the RBC Heritage

We know he’s been dominating the game from a statistical standpoint for the better part of two years. We know that in 2023 his adjusted scoring average was at historical lows, rivaling some of the best ever put up by Woods. And we also know the winning could have been all that much more had he had a cooperative putter.

But ever since Rory McIlroy suggested that Scheffler might consider trying a mallet putter—the idea of change was in the works already—the No. 1-ranked player according to the Official World Golf Ranking has been defeated by exactly one player.

And that player—Stephan Jaeger at the Houston Open—needed a Scheffler miss from 5 feet on the final hole to hold onto a one-shot victory.

Sandwiched around the near-miss for Scheffler were victories at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Players Championship, the Masters and now the RBC. That’s two signature events, the PGA Tour’s flagship tournament and a major.

In each tournament, there were eight of the top 10 players in the OWGR competing.

“I think when I'm playing my best, sometimes it feels like I'm competing against myself a little bit out there, trying to keep pushing and stay as focused as I can,” Scheffler said. “I felt like the back nine Sunday last week (at the Masters) was an example of that where I was just trying to keep pushing forward, pushing forward because the golf course is so challenging, anything can happen, and I wanted to build myself up a cushion.

“By the time we got to 18 I wanted to finish off the tournament the right way. At the end of the day, we're out here competing against the best players in the world. I love competing against these guys.”

Right now, the feeling is probably not mutual.

Scheffler is making it tough on every one else, much in the same way Woods did some 20 years ago. While Scheffler might not have piled up the major championships that way Woods did in the early 2000s, he’s been on a statistical level that is similar.

One excellent example: This year, his strokes-gained tee-to-green statistics help tell a story: Sentry (ranked No. 1), WM Phoenix (1), Genesis (2), Arnold Palmer (1), Players (1), Houston (3), Masters (1), RBC Heritage (1).

Throw in a short game that has been stellar and putting that is far better than at any time last year and you’ve got the kind of run on the PGA Tour not seen in a good while. Jon Rahm won four tournaments last year through the Masters but did not win again. Scheffler has four wins at this point and winning more simply seems inevitable.

“It's always fun to watch him play,” said Sepp Straka, who played with Scheffler in the last two rounds. “It's incredible what he's doing right now.”

Jordan Spieth’s aggravating wrist injury

If you want some clues into the up-and-down season that Jordan Spieth is having, perhaps it is as simple as the issue he’s been having with his left wrist that dates to last year and kept him out of the PGA Championship at Oak Hill in Rochester, N.Y.

Spieth had a recurrence of the problem on Thursday at the RBC Heritage, and it was bad enough that it nearly caused him to withdraw. A tendon in his left wrist popped out while hitting a greenside bunker shot on the 13th hole, and Spieth told PGATour.com that it led to the problem with his ECU (extensor carp ulnaris).

Jordan Spieth was T39 at the RBC Heritage while dealing with a recurring wrist injury. / Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

“It’s a thing that’s recurring,” Spieth told the Tour’s website following the second round. “I was lucky because most times it comes out, and I can’t turn it (left), and so I would have been screwed It’s the ECU tendon. It came out and came right back in its groove.

“On 14 (Thursday), I thought I was done for the week. Then (the tendon) came back in and I was like, “alright, I’m good.”

The ulnar nerve injury that kept him out of the PGA Championship recurred last fall and again during the Valero Texas Open, where he tied for 10th the week prior to the Masters.

Spieth managed to finish the round Thursday at 1-under-par 70 and then shot 67 on Friday after having the wrist taped. A final-round 72 meant a tie for 39th.

He didn’t seem to be concerned about the wrist going forward, as it’s something he’s been dealing with for some time.

“I know what the issue is, I’m not giving it any time to heal right now,” Spieth said.

A three-time major champion, Spieth, 30, has 13 PGA Tour victories but has now gone two years since his last win at the RBC Heritage. He’s been particularly frustrated recently as he missed the cut at the Players Championship, the Valspar Championship and the Masters.

So far this year, Spieth has two top-six finishes,  but he’s also finished outside the top 30 on three occasions, missed three cuts and been disqualified from another event (Genesis) for signing an incorrect scorecard.

Golf and gambling

Golf, like most major sports, has embraced gambling. While once shunned and dismissed, it is now a big part of the landscape. While PGA Tour players are strictly prohibited from gambling on themselves, other players or on the sport at all, the Tour has partnered with bet365, BETMGM and betPARX, all of which are “Official Betting Operators of the PGA Tour.”

All of this made sense. When the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 struck down a federal law that prohibited gambling and states began legalizing it, the Tour was smart to not sit on the sideline.

But there was always the fear of some unsavory behavior. In golf, it has mostly centered around the idea that upset gambling spectators could impact the competition, either by taunting players up close or even trying to disrupt them as a way to enhance their own wagering.

Last week’s issues in the NBA brought to light another potential pitfall, even if seems unlikely a player could be so foolish.

The NBA permanently banned Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter for “disclosing confidential information to sports betters, limiting his own participation in one or more games for betting purposes and betting on NBA games.”

Porter apparently bet on himself or told friends and associates that he would assure that he went under the various prop bets for points, rebounds and assists in a game. The NBA made specific reference to a March 20 game in which he played only three minutes. A betting outlet saw that someone had placed $80,000 on Porter not hitting point and rebound totals, and that set off alarms—which is a good thing. The bet would have won the gambler $1.1 million. The league then investigated. It discovered that he had bet on himself and other games.

This sort of thing was inevitable. And you could see how a lower-level player might be tempted, even if the lower salaries are still immense enough to keep someone from taking such a ridiculous risk.

Could this happen in golf? Sure. What’s to keep some player from tanking on an individual matchup in some obscure group? Or betting the over/under a particular score? The problem, of course, is large sums bet should trigger some sort of concern at the betting places. And it’s one of the reasons why having it legalized and monitored can actually help.

But the NBA just offered up a reminder of what is possible. A lower level player might get away with it for some time, which is always among a sports league’s biggest fears: the legitimacy of the competition.

LIV Golf’s big week down under ... and other notes

You will likely hear plenty about the LIV Golf Adelaide event this week. It was the LIV Golf League’s biggest tournament of 2023 and promises to be more so this year, as the Grange Golf Club expanded capacity. The buzz and atmosphere that LIV has attempted to create with its “Golf But Louder” mantra has worked here better than anywhere.

One reason is the relative dearth of high-end players that play in Australia on an annual basis. Golf fans lamented the PGA Tour wraparound schedule that deprived them of the stars going to the biggest tournaments in the Australian summer, including the Australian Open and the Australia PGA.

A bigger issue is the lack of sponsorship money to attract them. Purses for the Australian events are far below what the PGA Tour pays and closer to Korn Ferry Tour levels. For example, the Australian Open won by Joaquin Niemann in November was $1.8 million Australian—or approximately $1.1 million US. That’s well below what a winner typically gets on the PGA Tour.

With LIV Golf, that is not an issue. The purse is like all the other LIV events—$25 million overall with $20 million for the individual portion. And $4 million to the winner. Talor Gooch won the first of his three LIV titles last year, and the all-Aussie team led by captain Cam Smith is a huge draw.

The time change will allow for a 9:45 p.m ET start on Thursday (Friday morning at 11:15 a.m. in Adelaide) and the chance to watch via LIV’s streaming methods. (The event will be on tape delay during the usual 1 p.m. ET window on the CW Network on Saturday and Sunday).

And a few more things ...

What Nelly Korda is doing on the LPGA Tour is just as impressive as Scottie Scheffler’s run on the PGA Tour. And perhaps due to the weather issues on Sunday at Hilton Head, more people were able to watch her make history. Her major championship victory at the Chevron Championship meant five straight wins, tying the record shared by Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sorenstam (2004-05). She will go for six in a row this week in Los Angeles. ... The victory was Korda’s 13th on the LPGA Tour and her second major title. ... Billy Horschel captured his eighth PGA Tour title with his victory at the Corales Puntacana Championship. Horschel had not won since the 2002 Memorial. ... Rory McIlroy is making his first appearance at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the PGA Tour’s two-man team event. His partner is Shane Lowry and the field has 80 teams with better-ball and foursomes the formats. ... The PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club begins in 24 days.