Scottie Scheffler keeps “blinders on;” wins rain-delayed RBC Heritage with ease

Remember when people said Scottie Scheffler could not putt?

Since changing from a blade putter to a mallet putter ahead of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, Scheffler has gone on to win at Bay Hill, TPC Sawgrass, Augusta National, and most recently, the rain-delayed RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links.

Scheffler’s latest win marks his 10th victory in 51 career starts—a rate even better than Tiger Woods, who needed 59 starts to notch his 10th win.

His outlandish success has come about thanks to his otherworldly play from tee to green. Once again, Scheffler led the field at Harbour Town in strokes gained off the tee, strokes gained approaching the green, and strokes gained overall. However, he ranked 36th in strokes gained putting, yet he won by three shots with ease on Monday morning.

“It’s funny how quickly the narrative can change around here. I think a lot of people are just prisoners of the moment,” Scheffler said after his latest win.

Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

“If I didn’t win this week, I’m sure it would be a lot different, but I’m the same guy I was two months ago, and I’ll be the same person two months from now no matter what happens. I’m not going to sit here and say I told you so or anything like that because I’ve just been keeping my head down and trying to do the best I can. Outside of that, I’ve got the blinders on for the most part.”

Scheffler has blocked out the outside noise like very few others in this game have been able to do. He has won four of the biggest events in the world in a 44-day span, a remarkable feat.

He came close to winning at the Texas Children’s Houston Open, too, but he misread a 6-footer for birdie on the 72nd hole. That resulted in Stephan Jaeger triumphing that week, leaving Scheffler in a tie for second—his only non-victory since Mar. 1.

Regardless, Scheffler’s current run has entered rare territory. The last player to win four times within five starts was Woods, who did so in 2007. Like Scheffler this year, that run in 2007 included a major championship—Woods won the PGA Championship at Southern Hills.

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Scheffler, of course, won The Masters in historic fashion and then trekked down to Hilton Head to win the RBC Heritage this past week. In doing so, he became the first player since Bernhard Langer in 1985 to win these tournaments in back-to-back weeks.

“I do have fairly high expectations for myself, and when I show up at tournaments, I try to do my best,” Scheffler said.

“I’ve talked a lot about preparation and what it takes for me to show up on the first tee ready to go. I feel like I’ve been putting in the work and playing some good golf, and it’s nice to be seeing some results with wins. At times last year, I felt like I was playing some good golf and wasn’t winning, so now it’s nice to be sitting here winning some tournaments.”

Some figured that Scheffler would not have his best stuff in Hilton Head this week, considering his emotional victory at The Masters and the fact that he will be a new father any time now. Understandably, his mind could have been elsewhere, but Scheffler still persevered.

“It was part of our plan to come here and play this week. I was able to go home for a couple of days and celebrate. I didn’t really put much thought into it. I had committed to playing in the tournament. That’s really all it was. There really wasn’t too much thought on that,” Scheffler explained.

Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

“I committed to playing here; it was part of the plan, so we stuck to the plan. I talked about it at the beginning of the week; I didn’t show up here to have some sort of ceremony and have people tell me congratulations. I came here with a purpose. I got off to a slow start, but after that, I played some really nice golf.”

Scheffler opened with a 2-under 69 and then carded rounds of 66 and 63 to take a one-shot lead going into Sunday’s final round.

A substantial rain delay late Sunday afternoon forced Scheffler and others to wrap up their rounds on Monday morning, but the result was all but decided by Sunday evening.

Scheffler held a five-shot lead with three holes to play. He was never going to relinquish that, especially with the way in which he keeps his blinders on.

Now the question becomes, can he maintain his focus at Valhalla next month and win the PGA Championship? It should surprise nobody if he does.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.