Portrush, Northern Ireland. The hardest skillset in pro golf is closing out a tournament. Doing so provides the ultimate statement on a golfer’s talent level.

The pressure on world-ranked number one Scottie Scheffler when entering the final round of this year’s Open Championship at Royal Portrush was to do what others fully expected him to do.

The 29-year-old passed the test with flying colors – scoring a final round 68 and winning his first Open Championship with a 72-hole score of 267 (-17) and a four-shot victory margin over fellow American Harris English.

Scheffler heard the famous phrase — “champion golfer of the year” — before receiving the famed Claret Jug from R&A CEO Mark Darbon.

The win marked Scheffler’s fourth overall major title and his second this year after capturing the PGA Championship this past May at Quail Hollow.

What’s interesting is that the early fanfare in 2025 was paid to Rory McIlroy who won the AT&T, The Players and then The Masters to capture the career Grand Slam. The man who slipped on the green jacket to Rory was Scheffler and his facial expression when doing the honors was both celebratory and motivational.

From that moment onward Scheffler re-established himself as golf’s Superman. Since Augusta he has played in nine events – winning four of them. The wins in the majors were emphatic – matching the winning margins of four shots or more that only Ben Hogan (1953) and Tiger Woods (2000) accomplished.

Scheffler played nearly airtight golf in the final round with the lone blemish coming at the 8th where he scored a double-bogey six. That fumble was his first on the scorecard going back to the second round when he bogied the 11th. He quickly rebounded with birdies at the 9th and 12th respectively and ended his round with six consecutive pars.

“Being able to walk up 18 with the tournament in hand is a really tough thing to describe. It’s a really cool feeling,” Scheffler said. “I have a lot of gratitude towards being able to accomplish something like this.”

The win by Scheffler sends a clear and unmistakable message — the Sheriff in golf is not going anywhere. Beating him will require an extraordinary level of play and with each key victory the manner of his successes begins to look more and more like the heyday of when Tiger Woods ruled golf.

Scheffler has considerable ways to go in order to be placed on the lofty pedestal Woods rightly occupies but consider that only four players have won the Masters, PGA Championship and Open Championship before the age of 30 — Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.

Before Sunday, no one had ever won each of their first four major titles by three shots or more.

Scheffler also became just the fourth player in Open Championship history to shoot 68 or better in all four rounds, joining Collin Morikawa (2021), Henrik Stenson (2016) and Jesper Parnevik (1994).

To be placed in such elite company with Woods, Nicklaus and Player is a testament to the level of extraordinary golf the Texan has demonstrated since securing his first PGA Tour title in 2022 at the Waste Management event. His win total now on the PGA Tour stands at 17 titles.

His play at Portrush was remarkable given how he negotiated his golf ball during first round play, scoring a three-under-par 68 when only hitting 3 of 14 fairways.

The second round was when Scheffler seized a lead he would never relinquish. Teeing off in the late afternoon and dealing with various weather issues, it was a vintage display of shotmaking — scoring eight birdies against a single bogey and sharing the low of the round of the championship with a brilliant 64.

Scheffler’s key strength is bogey avoidance. In ways comparable to Woods, the competition knows full well that in order to beat him they will need to play flawlessly in order to keep up with him.

One of Scheffler’s weaknesses had been an inconsistent putter. The imagery of him four-putting the final hole when winning his first Masters in 2002 was not exactly a champion’s fitting ending.

But that single flaw has been alleviated and his putting skills were seen throughout this year’s Open. It was key par saves on the back nine during Friday’s second round that kept the momentum going in his 64 round that day.

What’s left for Scheffler? A win at next year’s US Open at Shinnecock Hill would add his name to the career Grand Slam club as the seventh golfer to do so.

Many had opined that the days of a truly dominant golfer were not likely to happen again with the end of the peak performance years of Woods. Scheffler has clearly shown the “S” on his chest is Superman and unless someone can find some kryptonite it’s highly unlikely the result at Portrush will be the last time one sees Scottie Scheffler hoisting trophies in the air.

Odds and Ends

• Rory McIlroy finished T7 in scoring a final round two-under-par 69 and 274 total.

• Harris English matched his runner-up finish in this year’s PGA Championship with a second-place outcome at Royal Portrush with a final round 66 and 271 total. He is now in position to secure a return ticket to the USA Ryder Cup team.

• 2019 Open Champion Shane Lowry finished the event with a final round score of 66 and a 282 total. The winner at Royal Portrush six years ago finished T40.

• Chris Gotterup backed up his win at last week’s Scottish Open with his best finish in a major championship scoring a final round 67 and 272 total. In two weeks the American has pocketed nearly $2.7 million and the outcome was a cause to equally celebrate with his 26th birthday on Sunday.

• The 2026 Open Championship will be played at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England (July 12-19). The event will mark the 11th time the club has hosted the event.

The Top Stats Of The Day

• In his 25 major starts to date, Scheffler has now won four times and enjoyed 12 other top-ten finishes.

• Scheffler is only the second player to win The Open when world number one (the last was Tiger Woods in 2000, 2005 and 2006).

• Scheffler needs to win the US Open to become the seventh player to complete the career Grand Slam.

• Four American players have won the last five stagings of The Open – Collin Morikawa (2021), Brian Harman (2023), Xander Schauffele (2024) and Scheffler (2025).

• Nicolai Højgaard and Scheffler are the 11th and 12th players to complete an Open with four rounds under 70.

• The stroke average for the final round was 69.886 – the first-time ever there have been two consecutive rounds under 70.

Related: Where did every LIV Golfer finish at the Open Championship?

Golf Today details where every LIV Golfer finished at the 2025 Open Championship

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