Writing from Owings Mills, Maryland
Sunday, August 17, 2025
As highlight reel moments go, Scottie Scheffler’s 81 foot 11 inch chip-in birdie on Caves Valley Golf Club’s 17th hole Sunday may stand as the signature moment of the season, aside from any coming heroics in the Ryder Cup.
With that deft chip, which landed softly on a green running away from him and fell into the cup with its last turn, Scheffler did several things.
• He effectively won the BMW Championship, for Robert MacIntyre, the leader for 58 holes, needed to eagle the par-4 18th to force a tie, and after he smacked his tee shot into the rough for the eighth time on the day, that wasn’t happening.
• He further cemented his No. 1 position in the world rankings.
• He buttressed his odds-on case for player of the year.
• He reinforced the notion that he’s the favorite for the Tour Championship next week at East Lake in Atlanta, with which goes the FedEx Cup pot of gold.
Oh, and one more thing. That he should never be counted out, even when coming into the final round with a four-stroke deficit.
Scheffler took advantage of MacIntyre’s miscues and overcame some of his own in authoring a 3-under-par 67 to finish at 15-under 265, two strokes ahead of MacIntyre, whose 3-over 73 was both untimely and sloppy.
In sweltering heat – it reached 95 degrees with a heat index of 121 at the course’s maintenance facility – and with little wind until the last couple of hours of play, the only way to keep cool was to make birdies. Then, at least, there would be less to worry about.
The trend was evident early, when Scheffler’s five-foot birdie putt and MacIntyre’s failure to save par created a two-stroke swing on the first hole, cutting the Scottish left-hander’s margin to two strokes. A similar two-stroke swing on the par-4 fifth and Scheffler was tied for the lead, just 65 minutes after their round began.
“I was putting myself in position, doing the right things,” Scheffler said. “I didn't really feel like I was doing a lot of stuff wrong. It was just very challenging out there. I knew if I continued to execute and stay patient that things were eventually going to go my way.
“Really, it all just boils down to execution. I think sometimes throughout the course of a round like that, if you're not getting the most out of it, it can be frustrating, and then things can kind of snowball from there. But I did a good job of staying patient and executing when it really mattered.”
Scheffler took the lead – the only lead change of the week once MacIntyre made his birdie binge on Thursday – by sinking a 6-foot putt on the par 4 seventh to climb to 14-under. He was never headed from there. Along with the chip heard round Maryland on the 17th, Scheffler’s 8-iron bunker shot on the 15th was brilliant.
“All of a sudden he hits it in there about seven feet on 15, it's a golf tournament now,” Scheffler said. “I stepped up there and hit it inside of him to about six and a half feet and was able to hole that putt.”
Only once did MacIntyre, who made 19 birdies in the first three rounds, make a birdie on Sunday. It came on the par-5 16th hole, a two-putt birdie from 22 feet that briefly closed the gape to a stroke.
Scheffler responded with the knockout punch, a delicate chip from moderately heavy rough on the par-3 17th to a cup cut just three paces from the edge on the other side of the green, and with a slope that could act like a black hole to a ball hit too hard and take it into a pond.
There was no chance of that.
“It was a chip we practiced,” Scheffler said. “I knew how fast it was, and basically it was just trying to get it on the green. It was kind of a bowl pin back there to where everything kind of funnels towards it, and I knew it was just going to be really fast, and do my best to get it down there and give myself a good look for par.
“When it came out, it came out how we wanted to and then it started breaking and it started looking better and better, and yeah, it was definitely nice to see that one go in.
“When that chip goes in, you know it's a pretty cool shot, but the job is not nearly finished after that. Bob could just as easily chip his in, and you don't know what's going to happen, so you've got to stay focused and did a good job hitting the fairway and the green there on 18 and gave myself a pretty stress-free par.”
MacIntyre, also in the rough but closer and at a more difficult angle, but missed his chip and settled for par. That made the 18th golf’s equivalent of a ticker-tape parade – at least for the tenacious Texan. It was the killer blow and MacIntyre knew it.
“Nothing you can do with that,” MacIntyre said. “When he’s pitched that in n 17 and hits the perfect tee shot on 18, it’s pretty much game over then.
“He’s the better player on the day. I’m just really pissed off right now. I want to go and smash up my golf clubs, to be honest with you."
From the moment e bogeyed the first hole, MacIntyre didn’t have that happy-go-lucky look he’d carried since Thursday.
“I got off to an absolutely horrific start,” MacIntyre said. “I just expected jumpers (from the rough) on 1 and 2, and it comes out dead. I felt great going out today. I wasn’t even expecting to be over par. I was really expecting to go out there foot down and perform the way I have.”
Then Scheffler put his foot down, and it landed on MacIntyre’s neck.
Victory No. 5 of the season and his 18th on the American circuit earned Scheffler $3.6 million and ran his season earnings to $23,962,883.14, exclusive of bonuses.
MacIntyre, the first player in 49 years to lead a Western / BMW solo for three rounds and lose – joining Bob Dickson in 1976 and Ray Mangrum in 1936 – receives $2.16 million as balm. This season, Jake Knapp (Palm Beach) and Joel Dahmen (Puntacana) have also achieved that ignominious feat of leading the first three laps and crashing, though not in tournaments as prestigious.
To put Scheffler’s achievement in historical perspective, consider this. He’s only the fourth player to win this championship and two major championships in the same year. The others are Ben Hogan (1946 PGA Championship and U.S. Open, which gave him three majors for the year, as the Western was universally considered a major then), Tom Watson (1977 Masters and British Open), and Nick Price (1994 British Open and PGA).
How’s that for a foursome?
Maverick McNealy, whose 4-under 66 was the day’s best round, was solo third, earning $1.36 million for his 11-under 269 total. Tommy Fleetwood and Sam Burns tied for fourth. All three threatened down the stretch, Burns coming within a stroke after a birdie on the 16th, but bogeys on the two closing holes killed his quest.
On to East Lake … or not
Michael Kim seemed to be in or out of the Tour Championship with every shot in the field on Sunday. Ultimately, he ended up out, finishing 31st in the season point standings despite shooting 6-under 274 for the week and finishing solo 10th in the tournament. He posted an even par 70 on Sunday.
Ironically, the final blow that kicked him out and Akshay Bhatia into the 30th spot was a birdie putt by Viktor Hovland, with whom Kim was playing, on the 18th hole.
“I looked at the projections right before the 18th hole, and after Viktor hit it really close on 18 I was like, oh, I think I might have to make birdie,” Kim said. “Another really good swing on 18, just whether it was some adrenaline or the wind just a little higher than I thought, hit it a little too far past and was a pretty tough putt to make on 18.”
Only Harry Hall, who finished solo sixth at 8-under 272, jumped into the top 30 for East Lake. He was 45th coming into the week, and pushed Lucas Glover, 30th coming in, out. Glover ended up 36th in the season standings.
Around Caves Valley
Andrew Novak was out the door before many in the gallery arrived. Playing as a single, he teed off at 9:05 a.m. ET and was in the clubhouse with a 5-over 75 by 11:20. … Daniel Berger withdrew before the final round because of a jammed finger suffered on Saturday, leaving Justin Rose to play alone in the middle of the field. … Scheffler has fashioned his 18 wins in 148 starts, not bad for a 29-year-old. He’s the first player to win five tournaments in back-to-back seasons since Tiger Woods. Now he vies to become the first back-to-back FedEx Cup winner. … Scheffler won with substitute caddie Michael Cromie on his bag, because regular Ted Scott is home on an urgent family matter. … Defender Keegan Bradley tied for 17th. … Next year’s tournament is at Bellerive Country Club in Town & Country, Mo., a suburb outside of St. Louis as fashionable as Owings Mills.
– Tim Cronin
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