Dominant day: Scottie Scheffler uses mid-round birdie binge to win The Players Championship

Scottie Scheffler didn’t just win The Players Championship on Sunday at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.

He joined some select World Golf Hall of Fame company in the way he posted a five-shot victory over Tyrrell Hatton at 17-under-par 271 for his sixth PGA Tour title in only 13 months.

Not that anyone’s rushing Scheffler. At 26 years old the University of Texas graduate has 19 years before he’s eligible for induction.

Gene Frenette: Local golf writer focuses on beating cancer, misses working life

Len Mattiace, 25 years later: A Players tale of tragedy, redemption and a mother's word of love

Joggers? Hoodies?What's the latest fashion trend in the golf world?

But consider what the victory means:

• Scheffler (69 in the final round, with all five of his birdies coming in succession between Nos. 8 and 12) returned to No. 1 in the world.

• He became the third player in history to hold the Masters and Players Championship titles at the same time, joining the two most dominant players in history, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

• Scheffler tied Davis Love III (2003) for the fifth-lowest 72-hole score in Players history and tied Nick Price (1993) and Lanny Wadkins (1979) for the fourth-highest margin of victory.

• He also became only the third Players champion to sign for four scorecards in the 60s for the week. The first was Greg Norman in 1994, followed by Steve Elkington in 1997.

“Quite a special group of people,” he said, referring to Nicklaus and Woods. “We could add all our majors and Players together and I have two now and they have a lot more than that. But any time you can get mentioned in the same breath as Tiger and Jack it's very special. I'm very grateful for that.”

And it was a family affair. His parents, wife and 88-year-old grandmother Mary watched him cruise through the Stadium Course.

"She's a trooper," he said of grandmother. "I'm just happy that we're able to kind of enjoy all this together."

Making up for FedEx Cup

Scheffler also considers his Players victory as a vindication of sorts for not closing out the 2022 FedEx Cup, after entering the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta on top of the points list.

Scheffler had a six-shot lead over Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele entering the final round but shot 73 and McIlroy passed him for his third FedEx Cup title.

The 600 FedEx Cup points Scheffler collected for winning The Players gives him an early boost for this year's points race. He moved into third, behind Jon Rahm and Max Homa and also collected $4.5 million, the largest individual check in professional golf history.

“This tournament feels like a major championship to me and this morning was tough,” he said about his emotions before the start of the round, with a two-shot lead over Min Woo Lee. “I would say that East Lake was pretty challenging for me just to handle. It was obviously very sad and hard and I didn't expect things to finish that way. So this one's a lot sweeter now.”

Chip-in fuels birdie streak

Scheffler floundered a bit to start the day. Lee birdied the first hole and Scheffler bogeyed No. 3 on a three-putt, and they were tied at 13-under.

Disaster struck Lee at the par-4 fourth. He had to lay up from heavy rough after his tee shot went astray to the right, and his third shot slid off the green on the left and into the water, leading to a triple-bogey.

Lee got one shot back with a birdie putt of nearly 30 feet at No. 7 but Scheffler applied what would prove to be the dagger: a chip-in birdie at the par-3 eighth hole, after his tee shot was short and left, and nearly in the bunker.

That gave Scheffler a three-shot lead and no one got closer as he birdied the next four holes – putts of 5 feet or less at Nos. 9, 11 and 12, and an 18-footer at No. 10.

“There was a lot more wind today, and I knew it was going to pick up as the day went on,” he said. “It felt like it was one of those days where somebody was kind of going to post a score and then they were going to be on the leaderboard, and I was just going to have to beat whoever it was. Fortunately, that chip went in.”

Hatton scorches back nine

That someone was Tyrrell Hatton of England.

Hatton, who tied for fourth last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, was even-par on the front nine, then went bonkers on the back nine with seven birdies to tie the Players record with McIlroy, Kevin Chappell and Shane Lowrey, who all did it in the 2016 tournament.

Six of Hatton’s seven birdie putts were 10 feet or less and the only thing that kept him from pitching a nine-birdie back was when he missed a 27-foot birdie putt attempt at No. 11 and a 12-footer for birdie at No. 13.

He finished with a 65 and was 12-under at a time when Scheffler was 18-under through 13 holes.

It would have taken a disaster of immense proportions for Scheffler to blow that lead but his only chink was a bogey at the 14^th. He parred out the remaining holes and drained a 20-footer for par at the last.

“Considering where I was at the start of the back nine -- I was probably tied 34th or something like that -- if you had said that you would finish second in the tournament or tied second and you don't have to play the back nine, I think you would take that,” Hatton said. “[Scheffler] is very impressive. He’s had an amazing 15-month stretch of golf.”

Hatton collected $2.7 million for his runner-up, which matches what Justin Thomas earned for winning the 2021 Players. Viktor Hovland (68) and Tom Hoge (70) tied for third and Hideki Matsuyama (68) finished solo fifth after a double-bogey at the 14^th hole derailed a stretch in which he birdied six of eight holes and came within a shot of Scheffler.

Lee finished with a 76 and dropped into a tie for sixth at 8-under with Max Homa (69), Justin Suh (79), Justin Rose (71), David Lingmerth (72), Sungjae Im (72) and Cam Davis (74).

Homa and Rose both doused their tee shots at the 17^th hole. Im had only two pars on the back nine, with three birdies and four bogeys.

It might not have mattered because Scheffler wasn’t going to flinch.

“He’s arguably the best player in the world right now,” said another former Texas Longhorn, Jordan Spieth.

And he was the best at The Players – by a wide margin.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Scottie Scheffler returns to No. 1 in the world by winning Players Championship