

Balance has been restored: Scottie Scheffler is winning again.
At the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, Scheffler didn’t just grab his first victory of 2025. He did it by playing what can only be described as video game golf, shooting 31-under par at TPC Craig Ranch for a wire-to-wire victory. His tournament total of 253 tied the PGA Tour record for lowest 72-hole score, shared by Justin Thomas and Ludvig Åberg.
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Scheffler’s scoring average in Dallas this week was 63.25.
You can’t overstate how difficult it is to win on the PGA Tour, but in this case, it was appropriate to start to wonder. When would Scheffler grab his first victory of the calendar year? His 2024 campaign set the bar impossibly high. That’s what happens when you win seven tournaments and an Olympic gold medal in 365 days. That’s what happens when you step onto the first tee with an aura of inevitability, the other players already mentally prepared for the damage you could do.
“Someone’s going to have to come give Scottie a kick in the knee to give all of us a chance,” Erik van Rooyen, who finished eight shots behind Scheffler in solo second place, told NBC before he teed off. “We’ll see if [the clubhouse lead] holds up. You think it’ll hold up?” Jordan Spieth joked after he shot a nine-under 62 to take the clubhouse lead on Sunday. CBS’ Colt Knost read text messages he was receiving from fellow PGA Tour players throughout the broadcast, including one from Justin Thomas: “31-under par is just fine.”
Five top-10s in eight starts preceded Scheffler’s appearance at his hometown event in Dallas at TPC Craig Ranch. For most professional golfers, that’s a three-month stretch to write home about. For Scheffler, it came with a slammed club or two, a few frustrated interviews and questions about his current form. He started the 2025 season with glass shards in his hand and two weeks of mandatory rest, but the man is not looking for top-10s and runner-ups, even when he’s posting them without his best stuff.
“More than anything, what makes Scottie so freaking good is his ability to commit,” his caddie, Ted Scott said in April. “Golf’s a hard game, and when you get a little bit off that thing can start going off the rails. He has the mental toughness to step up and even when he’s not feeling good, he can make a good swing.”
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Scheffler doesn’t care for context, though. He is freakishly competitive. He only wants to win. And that’s exactly what the 28-year-old did from Thursday to Sunday in Dallas, playing at the same venue that he grew up attending as a spectator, the one that offered him his PGA Tour debut as a 17-year-old amateur.
“I had my sister caddie for me, she’s over there. You know, it feels like a lifetime of hard work can sacrifice for little moments like these. It’s pretty special,” Scheffler said on the 18th green.
Scheffler’s tournament was stacked with highlights, but it started with a stunning opening-round 61, the second-lowest round of Scheffler’s career. He backed it up with a second-round 63, which he finished immediately before the tournament experienced a six-hour weather delay. Because of that weather interruption, Scheffler’s 66 on Saturday was completed in darkness. He went on to convert an eight-shot 54-hole lead on Sunday — the largest 54-hole lead since Rory McIlroy at the 2011 U.S. Open — into his 14th PGA Tour victory and his first of the 2025 season.
He shot 63 on Sunday, with eight birdies, an eagle and two bogeys — one of which included a flubbed chip that rolled back to his feet on the penultimate hole, momentarily reminding us all that he is human. On No. 18, Scheffler found a greenside bunker with his second shot into the par 5. An up-and-down from there would give him the PGA Tour 72-hole scoring record. He barely missed his birdie putt, settling for a tie with Thomas and Åberg.
Next, Scheffler will look to build on his momentum at Philadelphia Cricket Club for the Truist Championship, before he tees it up at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow for the second major of the season.
(Photo: Sam Hodde / Getty Images)
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