CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Officially, the PGA Championship ended shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday at Quail Hollow when Scottie Scheffler buried his last putt of the week and signed for his final-round 71 and 11-under for the tournament.
Unofficially, though, it felt like it had been put to bed 24 hours earlier, when Scheffler conducted an absolute clinic on the final five holes of his third round.
Scheffler, the No. 1 ranked player in the world, went 5-under par on the final five holes Saturday and seized a three-shot lead entering Sunday’s final round.
It seemed Scheffler, uncanny in his consistency and unflappability, was never going to back up on the leaderboard and let others in on Sunday. And it was up to the others to chase him down.
Well, Scheffler did back up on the front nine and Jon Rahm was on the chase, tying the lead with birdies on Nos. 8, 10 and 11 to get to 9-under as Scheffler made the turn 2-over to drop to 9-under.
Scheffler, after fighting his swing for the first half of his round, would recover, though.
That made this perhaps his most impressive major championship victory because of the gritty way it went down, holding off Rahm on the back nine to win by five shots.
Evidence of the weight from surviving the struggle was all over Scheffler’s face as he wiped away tears walking up the 18th fairway, listening to the thunderous roars from the massive galleries.
The realty of victory was setting in.
For Scheffler, it was his third career major championship (to go with two Masters) and it puts him halfway to a career Grand Slam.
This was Scheffler’s 140th career professional start. He went the first 70 of those without a single victory. Sunday was his 15th victory in the past 70 starts.
So, by age 28, Scheffler has three majors and 15 wins. Since World War II, only two other players have reached those milestones before age 29 — Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
Scheffler, too, is in the conversation with Nicklaus and Woods in shortest span between first and 15th victories. Woods won his first in 1996 and 15th in ’99, a span of three years and 32 days. Nicklaus (1962 to 1965) took three years and 45 days. Scheffler (2022 to 2025) took three years and 94 days.
These are the names to which Scheffler is being compared: the two greatest players in the history of the sport, with a combined 33 major championships.
Sunday marked the eighth consecutive tournament in which Scheffler closed the deal on a 54-hole lead, another Woods-like number.
And it feels like Scheffler is only just beginning.
This one did not come easy, though.
After Rahm made his run, Scheffler regained the lead with a birdie from the sand on No. 10 to get to 10-under, one shot clear of Rahm, and he wouldn’t lose the lead the rest of the way.
Scheffler would shoot 3-under on the back nine with three birdies and no bogeys.
After Scheffler’s third round on Saturday, a British reporter asked him: “Very simply put — how do you do it? How do you go from being three shots back to three shots clear of your nearest challenger?’’
The reporter genuinely sounded like he was in awe.
And for good reason. Who isn’t in awe?
Scheffler never looked like he had his good stuff through Thursday, Friday and some of Saturday before he gunned the accelerator.
He simply hung around, turning a struggle of an opening round into 2-under on Thursday and then posted a modest 3-under on Friday. He was 1-under for the day on Saturday before punching it in from No. 14 on in.
“It’s cliché, but he does all those small things really well,’’ Xander Schauffele, the 2024 PGA champion, said. “I played with him [Thursday and Friday] and he didn’t hit it great. He finished strong, which he always does, and gives himself some sort of momentum.
“He goes and practices after his rounds, does his thing with his team, and he rinses and repeats.’’
Schauffele finished his final round about 45 minutes before Scheffler was about to tee off Sunday. When he was asked about Scheffler’s chances of closing it out, he said, “He’s in a spot where it would be shocking if he didn’t win.’’
A few minutes later, Sam Burns, one of Scheffler’s best friends, finished his round and was asked about the prospect of anyone catching Scheffler.
“The way he hits the golf ball and how few mistakes he makes, I think it’s going to be really difficult for anyone to catch him,’’ Burns said. “Someone’s going to have to go out and do something miraculous.’’
Rahm nearly pulled off the miraculous.
Until Scheffler bettered him.