PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Scottie Scheffler may not find his life’s true fulfillment in winning, but that’s not going to keep him from continuing to do it on the sport’s biggest stages.
Scheffler on Sunday captured the third leg of the career Grand Slam, carding a 68 while cruising to a four-stroke victory in the Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
He became just the fourth player in Open Championship history to shoot 68 or better in all four rounds, joining Collin Morikawa (2021), Henrik Stenson (2016) and Jesper Parnevik (1994).
The start of Scheffler’s final round was ideal. From the first cut of rough, Scheffler hit his approach to the right side of the green on the slope. The ball trickled back and then rolled down to 10 inches from the cup for a tap-in birdie.
Scheffler already won the PGA Championship by five shots this year. He won the Masters last year by four shots and the Masters in 2022 by three shots. No one has ever won each of their first four major titles by three shots or more.
He became just the third golfer to win multiple majors by four or more strokes in a single year, joining Ben Hogan (1953: Masters, U.S. Open, The Open) and Tiger Woods (2000: U.S. Open, The Open).
This was an extraordinary test because of the cheers, not all of them for him. There was pure adulation for Rory McIlroy playing before a home crowd in Northern Ireland. He started the round six shots behind, needing his greatest closing round in a major and help from Scheffler, but McIlroy wound up seven back in a tie for seventh.
McIlroy, the Masters champion, became just the sixth player to win the career slam earlier this year.
The Associated Press and ESPN Research contributed to this report.