Scottie Scheffler was not worried in the slightest as Collin Morikawa’s chip shot trundled down towards the pin on 18 at the Memorial.
Scottie Scheffler admits he was not worried in the slightest as he watched playing partner Collin Morikawa get animated while his chip shot trundled towards the pin on the par-4 18th at the Memorial Tournament.
Scheffler, 27, held a narrow one-shot lead down the 72nd hole at famed Muirfield Village.
Both he and Morikawa went long with their approach shots into thick, juicy rough at the back of the green.
Morikawa was up first and played a beautiful, delicate chip shot just onto the green.
The ball trundled down towards the flag and Morikawa was interested.
Very interested, in fact.
The World No.7 was gesturing with his club for the ball to move slightly to the right and into the cup, but unfortunately for him the ball remained straight on its line with a little too much pace, and it settled some five feet beyond the flag.
Morikawa was left shocked as he put his hand to his head, seemingly in disbelief the ball had not clattered against the pin.
What touch from Collin Morikawa on 18!
He needs par to put the pressure back on Scottie. pic.twitter.com/cXH75LwZiA
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 9, 2024
Scheffler then chipped up to some six feet short of the pin, leaving a nerve jangler.
But he would bury the putt straight into the heart to capture an 11th career title, his first at the Memorial, and a fifth in his last eight starts on the PGA Tour
Big win. Big fist pump.
🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/Q6jydEACll
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 9, 2024
Morikawa duly holed his par putt too as he finished the week in solo second, marking his fourth top-four finish in his last six starts.
Scheffler closed with a 2-over 74 to finish the week on 8-under par, while Morikawa carded a 1-under 71 to finish 7-under par.
Adam Hadwin was three back in solo third.
When pressed by a reporter after the tournament as to whether Scheffler was at all worried about Morikawa’s birdie chip as it rolled towards the pin, he had something of a bemused look.
While the chip shot might have looked good to Morikawa, and to the rest of us on TV for that matter, the runaway World No.1 admitted he was not worried in the slightest.
Here’s the exchange between reporter and Scheffler:
Q. What did you think when Collin’s chip on 18 was rolling toward the cup? He thought it had a real good chance to go in.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I typically don’t pay a ton of attention to what other guys are doing. I was watching his chip there. To me, it looked like it was a little bit out to the left. From my angle, it didn’t look like — I mean, I don’t want to like insult him or anything, but from my angle, it didn’t look like it was going in at any point. I don’t know what it looked like on TV, but from my vantage point, it didn’t look like it was too close to going in.
But really, I was just trying to do my best to stay in my own little world out there and focus on just trying to get my ball up-and-down. My only focus was — I had kind of an iffy lie there in the rough. So as his chip was rolling up to the cup, maybe that’s how I remembered it, just because I wasn’t really paying that close of attention to it. I was more just trying to gauge the speed as it went down the hill because I was coming from a pretty similar angle. I was just really focused on what I was trying to do there and that was get the ball up-and-down.
Scheffler has now strengthened his gigantic lead in the FedEx Cup points race, meaning he won’t be caught as the leader heading into the season-ending Tour Championship at the end of the season.
He has now also vaulted up to seventh in the all-time career earnings on the PGA Tour.
