San Francisco (United States) (AFP) – World number one Scottie Scheffler powered to victory in the US PGA Tour Procore Championship on Sunday, grabbing his sixth title of the year and sounding a Ryder Cup warning to Europe. Four-time major winner Scheffler fired a five-under par 67 to surge past US Ryder Cup teammate Ben Griffin for the victory with a 19-under par total of 269.
Griffin, a captain’s pick for his first Ryder Cup team, started the day with a one-shot lead and opened with three straight birdies, but his two-under 70 wasn’t enough to hold off Scheffler. His 18-under total of 270 put him one stroke in front of veteran Lanto Griffin, who carded a seven-under 65 and took a big leap in his bid to secure his status for next year as he continues his comeback from back surgery.
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Ben Griffin still had a shot at Scheffler when he reached the green of the par-five 18th in two. His first putt from 60 feet left him a birdie attempt from inside six feet to force a playoff, but he couldn’t get it to drop. “I felt like I just wasn’t quite as sharp from short range as I needed to be, but I’ll get to work this week and hopefully make every single one of them at the Ryder Cup,” he said.
“I think we’re all excited for the Ryder Cup to get here,” Scheffler said. “The thing I always focus on most going into tournaments is my preparation. When I step up on the first tee, I can tell myself I did everything I could to play well. I definitely feel that way going into the Ryder Cup, and I’m excited to get it started.”
Scheffler had six birdies with just one bogey, continuing the improvement he had shown each day at Silverado Resort in Napa, California, where 10 of US captain Keegan Bradley’s 12 Ryder Cup players were in the field. Scheffler picked up his first birdie with an 11-foot putt at the third. He added a five-foot birdie at the fifth, then rolled in a 26-foot birdie at the par-three seventh. He fired out of the left rough to one foot at the 10th for a birdie, and after a three-putt bogey at 11, birdied 12 and 15, which proved enough to hold off Griffin.
– Nice finish –
Playing in the penultimate group, Scheffler said, meant he couldn’t keep track of what the last group was doing. “I kind of did my best to just stay in my own world and try to keep making birdies,” he said. “I could have used a few more there late on the back nine, but the golf course just got really tough late this afternoon… I did a good job of staying patient and finishing off nicely.”
Scheffler will spearhead the US Ryder Cup challenge when the Americans host Europe at Bethpage Black starting September 26 in the biennial match play showdown. Bradley will have been pleased to see another of his rookies, US Open champion J.J. Spaun, close with a six-under par 66 for solo sixth on 273. That was one shot behind the fourth-placed pair of Emiliano Grillo and world number one amateur Jackson Koivun.
Koivun started the day one off the lead. His challenge faded with back-to-back bogeys at 12 and 13, but the world’s top-ranked amateur bounced back with birdies at 15 and 16 to claim a third top-10 finish on the PGA Tour. Argentina’s Grillo, who claimed the first of his two PGA titles at Napa in 2015, birdied the last three holes to close out a six-under par 66.
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