In an odd finish at the Players Championship, Scottie Scheffler threw down a 64 and snuck out a win. Despite Wyndham Clark and Xander Schauffele having multiple opportunities to take the lead, Scheffler held on. The finish included a devastating missed putt for Xander and a “pop out?” putt for Wyndham. I still want some scientists to study that one and explain how that was possible…
The PGAT will gladly accept this win as they will push Scotty even further up the ranks and promote the next “Tiger”. It absolutely helps their ratings, and popularity as much of this year has been long-shot winners, no names if you will. The weather on Sunday was superb, which has not been the norm and the face of the tour is the champion. The repeat also makes for incredible content for the next week as they start to wind down a bit on the march to The Masters in a few short weeks. But was it? Did this “great field” really get the best result? Did Scotty do something rare if never seen on tour before?
Does the Victory by Scottie Scheffler Deserve an Asterisk?
If you talk to the LIV golf world, they will say it deserves an asterisk. All week long the tour kept promoting the idea of this tournament being a 5th Major and the best field all year. But we all know that isn’t true. While the reasons are many and very few golf fans can agree on hardly anything now days. The one thing we do know for sure is that some of the best players on the planet are not here, not playing in The Players Championship and certainly not competing in the “best field all year”.
Sling all the mud you want at Gooch if you enjoy that sort of thing but there is no doubt Brooks, DJ, Bryson, Cam Smith, and others are absolutely top players in the entire world of golf. They were not in this tournament. The reason why they were not here doesn’t matter because if you are going to overly promote the idea that this is a 5th Major with the strongest field in golf competition all year then you better damn well be sure you include the top players in the game. The Players Championship did not do this, however.
Tarnished Victory?
So, does this carry an asterisk now? Does this tarnish the victory, the history made, and the rising star of Scottie Scheffler? You won’t ever get a agreed answer on this any time soon and possibly never. It makes you wonder, however. Was the fight worth all of this? I don’t think falling and begging players to come back to the PGAT is at all in line with what I am suggesting here. What I am saying is that if you do consider this field didn’t include the best players then how would you characterize this event? Is it possible that Scheffler’s win didn’t come by battling the entire elite top 50 golfers in the world? Does this win in fact carry an asterisk?
Shouldn’t the “5th Major” Deserve to have the Best Field Possible?
The official documenting of the event will never happen, but this tournament was less than it should have been. Mostly the USA vs others will disagree until the end of time on what exactly we just watched. You can’t dismiss that Major Winners, players we tuned in to watch just 3 years ago, were not invited. In fact, they have been banned just like they were banned from playing in Saudi Arabia 4 years ago.
So, the other question that weighs on my mind also. If it’s a 5th Major is it still the “best field” in golf? What do you really think of DJ, Bryson, Brooks, and Cam Smith when it comes to their ability? If you think they wouldn’t have added anything to this event, then why are they at The Masters? Or the USO this summer? Are they bad golfers?
How is it possible to have an event of such magnitude without these players and not automatically think “damn this wasn’t the strongest field possible”. You can have your reasons to hate, but it’s hard to deny the asterisk crowd.