OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Scottie Scheffler erased a four-shot deficit in five holes and then delivered a haymaker on the daunting par-3 17th by chipping in from 82 feet for birdie that carried him to victory Sunday in the BMW Championship for his fifth PGA Tour title of the year.
Scheffler closed with a 3-under 67 for a two-shot victory and became the first player since Tiger Woods (2006-07) to win at least five times on the PGA Tour in consecutive years.
Robert MacIntyre didn’t make a birdie until the 16th hole but stayed in the game after losing his big league, mostly when Scheffler began missing short putts.
MacIntyre pulled within one shot of the lead going to the 17th, the toughest hole at Caves Valley, with a back right pin on a crispy green that sloped to the right toward the water. Scheffler went just left in the rough, the ball sitting up nicely but the shot still scary.
He landed it some 60 feet short and watched it trickle, and then roll, and then slow again until it dropped into the cup.
“It looked good when it landed, looked good when it was rolling, and it was nice to see that one go in,” Scheffler said.
MacIntyre could only look at him and stare at the world’s No. 1 player making other-worldly shots in another extraordinary season. MacIntyre, who made 18 birdies in the first 45 holes of the tournament, made only two over the last 27 holes. He shot 73.
It’s not over for Scheffler, who leads the 30 players who advanced to the Tour Championship at East Lake with a chance to become the first repeat FedExCup champion since the series began in 2007.
All 30 players at East Lake can win the $10 million first-place check. The field includes Harry Hall, the only player who played his way into the top 30 on Sunday, and even that was tense. Hall made bogey on the par-5 16th — the easiest hole on the course — and then went long and left at the 17th. He also chipped in for birdie and was safe going up the 18th.
Rickie Fowler was on the verge of getting back to East Lake only to twice miss the green from the fairway on the back nine, leading to bogey on the 14th and double bogey on the 15th, and knocked him out of the top 30.
Fowler finished with a 5-foot par putt — had he missed, Michael Kim would have been in the Tour Championship. Instead, the 30th spot went to Akshay Bhatia, despite making four bogeys on the back nine and feeling as though he had blown it.
MacIntyre squandered a big chance, too.
Here’s how the purse will be paid out in the PGA Tour’s second playoff event, the $20 million BMW Championship.
He showed plenty of grit on Saturday playing in the final group with Scheffler. But on the opening hole, Scheffler drilled his drive down the middle and hit to 6 feet for birdie, while MacIntyre missed the fairway and a 6-foot par putt. It was an early statement.
MacIntyre missed another fairway at the second and made bogey. He went from the fairway to a bunker on the short par-4 fifth, a two-shot swing when the Scotsman failed to get up-and-down for par and Scheffler made birdie.
And then Scheffler took the lead with a wedge to 6 feet for birdie on No. 7.
It looked like it would be a runaway at that point as Scheffler never seemed to miss — except when he had a chance to extend the lead. He missed birdie chances of 5 feet at No. 8 and 8 feet at No. 10. He botched a simple up-and-down at the 12th and three-putted from 18 feet on the 14th. Each chance kept MacIntyre in the hunt.
And then came one chip on the 17th, a knockout punch.
Scheffler, who finished at 15-under 265, has 18 career titles in the last three years and six months since his first PGA Tour title in Phoenix.
