By Martyn Herman
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland (Reuters) – A relentless Scottie Scheffler sealed his first British Open triumph by four shots as he turned the final day of the tournament into a procession at Royal Portrush on Sunday.
The 29-year-old American world number one started out with a four-stroke lead and apart from one blip, never looked like relinquishing his grip as the chasing pack were reduced to scrapping for the minor places.
Scheffler barely put a foot wrong all week on the glorious Causeway Coast, rekindling memories of 15-times major winner Tiger Woods in his pomp, and he rubber-stamped his fourth major title with a clinical final-round 68.
Take the dominant Scheffler out of the equation and the 153rd Open would have been a thriller with the leaderboard underneath him chopping and changing all weekend.
In the end, Harris English was the best of the rest on 13 under after a final-round 66 with fellow American Chris Gotterup a further shot back.
Huge galleries thronged the course and thousands arrived hoping see a Rory McIlroy miracle on the final day.
But Northern Ireland’s favourite sporting son, who began six shots behind Scheffler, was unable to mount a charge and ended up in a tie for seventh on 10 under.
LI TIED FOURTH
Li Haotong, the first Chinese man to go out in the final group of a major, finished tied fourth on 11 under with England’s Matt Fitzpatrick and American Wyndham Clark.
Scheffler has now completed three legs of his career Grand Slam and needs a U.S. Open crown to complete the set. He also became the first current world number one to lift the Claret Jug since Tiger Woods in 2006.
Those hoping to witness a battle royal for golf’s oldest major should probably have known better.
On the last nine occasions Scheffler had gone into the final round of a PGA Tour event leading, he emerged victorious, while his three previous major wins also arrived after a 54-hole lead.
When he birdied the first, fourth and fifth holes to move eight strokes clear the only question seemed to be whether he could set an Open record for a winning margin.
Even when errors did creep in, he simply rolled in long par-saving putts on the sixth and seventh holes to crush the spirit of those hoping for an unlikely collapse.
Only when he double-bogeyed the eighth after failing to get out of a bunker did Scheffler look like a mere mortal, his lead suddenly sliced to four strokes.
But it proved false hope for those pursuing a giant of golf, and a birdie at the ninth and another at the 12th hole steadied the ship and all that needed deciding then was who would come second.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Ed Osmond)
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