Scottie Scheffler finally captured his second win of the season on Sunday at the 2026 FedEx St. Jude Championship. In the process, the World No. 1 ended a winless drought that stretched back to January.
While that would hardly be news for almost any other player, Scheffler is the best in the world and has repeatedly experienced near-misses all year long.
But it all almost came undone when Scheffler suffered a horrendous break on the 3rd hole of the final round that threatened his lead as well as his comeback win and left the four-time major winner beside himself.
Scheffler after sprinkler head leads to water ball: ‘I wasn’t very happy’
It seems odd to say Scheffler has been snakebitten in 2026, but the argument holds some weight.
Though he earned his first victory in his very first start of the year at the American Express, and though he held a comfortable lead in the FedEx Cup standings all year, Scheffler had gone seven months without another win.
In that time, he recorded an incredible five runner-up finishes, two thirds and 10 total top 5s. While Scheffler admitted Sunday night that he “hadn’t played much kind of great golf” this season, he also suffered a number of bad breaks and bizarre occurrences that contributed to his lack of wins.
Take the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in May, where Scheffler was on a Sunday tear hunting down the lead from behind in an attempt to defend his 2025 title there. After two straight birdies, Scheffler hit a perfect wedge shot trying to set up another birdie, only it was too perfect. His shot ricocheted off the flagstick and rolled 55 feet off the green.
“When you’re winning tournaments, those are the ones that sometimes go in,” Scheffler said at the time. “When you’re not winning tournaments, those are the ones that hit the pin and kind of go 50, 60 feet away.”
The bad break cost him dearly, and he ended up with a solo third that week.
The golf gods struck the World No. 1 again early in Sunday’s final round of the FedEx St. Jude.
Beginning the day with a two-shot lead over Sam Burns and Sungjae Im, Scheffler took on the par-5 3rd green with his second shot, missing to the left and leaving himself with a tricky downhill bunker shot toward a pond guarding the front right side of the green.
To exactly no one’s surprise, Scheffler hit a perfect shot, lofting his ball into the air and getting it to land just on the collar of the green, right where he’d aimed, so it would trickle down to the hole and not run through the green and into the water.
But there was one problem. Scheffler’s ball came down directly on a sprinkler head hidden in the collar. His ball took a hard bounce, and he could only watch helplessly as it rolled past the pin, down the hill and into the water. A penalty stroke and drop followed. You can watch a clip of the shot here or below.
Scheffler couldn’t believe his bad luck, and he immediately communicated his shock to his caddie, Ted Scott.
“I told Teddy when we were going down there to drop my ball, and I was like when is this going to stop happening?” Scheffler said in his post-win press conference. “He’s like, ‘I don’t know, man.’”
When Scheffler made bogey at 3, his lead had been cut to one, and suddenly his march to victory looked in doubt.
“Yeah, I wasn’t very happy when that ball bounced off that sprinkler head on the 3rd,” Scheffler said. “It cost me a couple shots.”
Still, he could have done much worse than bogey there, and rather than shake him, the moment sparked a run of inspired play.
“Yeah, got that ball up-and-down and was able to save bogey and then bounce back pretty quick with a good shot at 4 and then a really nice birdie at 5. Just tried to do my best to bounce back really was all that it was,” Scheffler explained Sunday night.
He went five under the rest of the round, shooting 66 to win by an impressive margin of eight shots. However, Scheffler never felt comfortable given TPC Southwind’s treacherous closing stretch.
“I didn’t really feel like I could breathe too much until I got on the green on 18,” he admitted.
Now with his 21st PGA Tour victory secured, Scheffler heads to this week’s BMW Championship with the FedEx Cup points lead, and likely Player of the Year honours, all but wrapped up.
This article originated on Golf.com
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