World No 1 Scottie Scheffler became the first man to win back-to-back Players Championships with a superb eight under-par-64 on Sunday, giving him a one-stroke victory at TPC Sawgrass.
Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman and Xander Schauffele all finished a shot behind Scheffler, with Clark going agonisingly close to forcing a playoff with Scheffler.
He defines the moment yet again!
— THE PLAYERS (@THEPLAYERS) March 17, 2024
Scottie Scheffler has won THE PLAYERS 2024.#THEPLAYERS pic.twitter.com/XZbUBn3H2W
All three of the challengers in the all-American battle needed birdies on the 18th and Clark was distraught after his 17-foot birdie putt lipped out.
That left Scheffler, waiting on the range at 20-under, to celebrate his historic achievement of consecutive wins at the Ponte Vedra Beach course as he followed up his victory at Bay Hill last week with another display of his consistency.
Scheffler entered the final round trailing overnight leader Schauffele by five shots but got his charge underway with an eagle on the par-4 fourth, where he holed out from 92 yards, before making three more birdies before the turn.
It was classic Scheffler on the back nine as he kept out of trouble and added three more birdies for his 64.
Then it was over to the trio chasing him to make up the gap and while Clark made birdies on 16 and 17, he fell just short on the last.
"We had a great finish yesterday and then got off to a slow start today but then the hole out on four kind of propelled us a little bit," said Scheffler.
"I hit a lot of good shots, did a lot good things this week and it's nice to come out on top.
"It's tough enough to win one Players and so to have it back-to-back is extremely special."
FINAL SCORES
-20 Scottie Scheffler (USA) 67 69 68 64
-19 Wyndham Clark (USA) 65 65 70 69; Brian Harman (USA) 72 65 64 68; Xander Schauffele (USA) 65 69 65 70
-16 Matt Fitzpatrick (England) 66 69 68 69
-15 Si Woo Kim (Korea Republic) 70 71 68 64; Hideki Matsuyama (Japan) 69 69 68 67
-14 Ludvig Aberg (Sweden) 67 73 67 67
-13 Maverick McNealy (USA) 67 68 68 72; Sahith Theegala (USA) 70 67 67 71
-12 Joel Dahmen (USA) 74 67 67 68; Taylor Montgomery (USA) 68 70 68 70
-11 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (South Africa) 69 70 68 70; Corey Conners (Canada) 68 68 73 68; Nate Lashley (USA) 68 70 67 72
-10 Doug Ghim (USA) 71 70 66 71; Sam Ryder (USA) 70 69 70 69; Sepp Straka (Austria) 68 70 70 70
-9 Harris English (USA) 69 69 75 66; Kurt Kitayama (USA) 70 71 71 67; Shane Lowry (Republic of Ireland) 71 70 72 66; Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) 65 73 69 72; Alex Noren (Sweden) 71 70 70 68; Adam Schenk (USA) 71 71 66 71; Dylan Wu (USA) 69 74 69 67
-8 Mackenzie Hughes (Canada) 70 73 69 68; Chris Kirk (USA) 68 70 73 69; Matthew NeSmith (USA) 73 67 68 72; Matti Schmid (Germany) 68 68 72 72; Nick Taylor (Canada) 66 68 76 70
-7 Mark Hubbard (USA) 68 73 72 68; Sungjae Im (Korea Republic) 70 72 69 70; Ben Martin (USA) 72 71 71 67; Taylor Moore (USA) 72 68 70 71
-6 Jason Day (Australia) 67 71 72 72; Tommy Fleetwood (England) 70 72 69 71; Brice Garnett (USA) 71 72 67 72; Lee Hodges (USA) 69 70 72 71; Denny McCarthy (USA) 71 71 71 69; Aaron Rai (England) 71 72 68 71; Jimmy Stanger (USA) 69 73 71 69
-5 David Lipsky (USA) 73 70 69 71; Grayson Murray (USA) 73 69 77 64; C.T. Pan (Chinese Taipei) 69 68 70 76
-4 Sam Burns (USA) 73 70 65 76; Austin Eckroat (USA) 71 69 68 76; Tony Finau (USA) 69 72 69 74; Jake Knapp (USA) 71 72 68 73; Ryan Moore (USA) 70 69 73 72; Collin Morikawa (USA) 71 69 70 74; J.T. Poston (USA) 69 68 69 78; Adam Scott (Australia) 70 72 71 71
-3 Andrew Putnam (USA) 69 74 72 70
-2 Zac Blair (USA) 73 70 70 73; Emiliano Grillo (Argentina) 69 71 69 77; Tom Hoge (USA) 67 69 75 75; Martin Laird (Scotland) 70 73 70 73; Min Woo Lee (Australia) 73 70 73 70; Francesco Molinari (Italy) 72 69 73 72; Sami Valimaki (Finland) 71 72 69 74; Cameron Young (USA) 70 69 73 74
-1 Thomas Detry (Belgium) 71 72 74 70; Viktor Hovland (Norway) 73 69 71 74
0 Tyler Duncan (USA) 67 75 72 74; Max Homa (USA) 68 75 74 71; Seamus Power (Republic of Ireland) 72 69 78 69; J.J. Spaun (USA) 72 71 70 75
2 Patrick Cantlay (USA) 72 70 73 75; Rickie Fowler (USA) 74 69 76 71; Chan Kim (USA) 70 71 70 79; Peter Malnati (USA) 70 73 66 81
3 Gary Woodland (USA) 70 73 74 74
4 Keith Mitchell (USA) 69 71 76 76