Jordan Spieth perfectly explained Scottie Scheffler’s remarkable victory

There isn’t much more to say about Scottie Scheffler than what the leaderboard is telling us. After four days at TPC Craig Ranch, no one was within eight. Scheffler crested 30 under and pushed himself one better, gaining six shots on the field average every single day. His total of 253 strokes? It tied the PGA Tour record.

Scheffler’s inclination is to treat his uncommon feats as just another win, but thankfully he’ll get caught up in the personal meaning for him. This was the first event he played in as a professional. It felt like a full-circle victory to the man at the center of it all, but it has to mean something different to everyone around him. This performance was clinical in a way that grabbed the attention of his peers. Last year, when he beat Tom Kim in a playoff at the Travelers? Helluva win, Scottie. This week, when he laps the field, and then laps them again, just days before a major championship? Scary win, Scottie.

Jordan Spieth knows exactly what we’re talking about. For starters, Spieth saw it up close on Thursday and Friday when he played with Scheffler in their shared hometown. Spectators lined the ropes on every hole for the Dallas residents and were treated to an opening 61 from Scheffler. It was the best round of the day, and then he followed it with the best second round, too — a 63. His Saturday 66, by comparison, had to be frustrating. 

But nothing like what Spieth could have felt — breaking 70 twice in two days and losing by 12. In a word, Spieth wouldn’t call it frustrating, though. He went with “inspiring,” partly because of their relationship away from the PGA Tour. 

Spieth and Scheffler grew up in each other’s respective orbits, their high schools just six miles apart. Each earned invites as amateurs into the Byron Nelson tournament, and each made the cut. Each attended the University of Texas, and Spieth actually one-upped Scheffler’s Longhorn tenure by claiming a national title in his one year on campus. He then went and won the Masters as a 21-year-old, won the U.S. Open a couple months later and won the PGA Tour Player of the Year award a few months after that. 

Spieth was an inspiration for Scheffler back then, when the latter was just in high school, a standard he could try and live up to. And now, a full 10 years later, the tables have turned. 

Spieth calls Scheffler inspiring because the last few years have not only redefined what great looks like on Tour, but also in the Tuesday money game. Or the recreational matches played between the two at home in Dallas. 

“I mean, it wasn’t that long ago I was definitely better than him, and now I’m definitely not right now,” Spieth said Sunday afternoon. “I hate admitting that about anybody, but I just watched it those first two rounds, and like — I’ve got to get better. It’s very inspiring.”

Spieth has been rounding into form himself, working his way back from offseason wrist surgery. He’s playing like one of the 30 best players in the world, and is now painfully reminded of just how far away from Scheffler he still is. In fact, those rounds at home, without the cameras, without spectators — just playing alongside each other at Royal Oaks or Maridoe or Dallas National — they help Spieth out. If he can clip Scheffler, he knows he’s playing well. That’s how consistently great Scheffler has become. Beat him, you’re great, too. 

“I play a lot of golf with him in town here,” Spieth reiterated. “I know if I’m able to clip him when we’re playing at home, then I’m playing really well. That’s just the way it’s been the last few years. It didn’t used to be that way. I used to get him every time.”

We don’t doubt it. But this mix of soft jealousy or low-key admiration hits a bit harder when it comes from Spieth. He’s won by eight before. He’s shot 30 under in a tournament. He’s got more major wins than Scheffler does. But after Sunday, Scheffler now has 14 career Tour wins. Spieth has been stuck on 13 for three years. 

“It’s inspiring what he’s doing,” Spieth continued. “It makes me want to work harder and be better, especially after watching him for two days and just getting my butt kicked. I didn’t play great golf, but even if I did, it would have been hard to be at 18-under in two rounds. I don’t think I’ve ever done that.

“So just getting your butt kicked right there face-to-face at this tournament really stinks.”

The only consolation for Spieth came in the final two holes of the tournament.

While Spieth was packing up his things and getting ready to head to Philadelphia for next week’s Truist Championship — an event he needed a sponsor’s exemption to access — Scheffler was busy making a lame bogey on the 71st hole and a basic par on the 72nd. That kept his final round tally at 63, the second-best score of the day. The only score to beat him, of course, was Spieth’s 62.