Red hot Scheffler wins by four strokes

Scottie Scheffler romped to his 20^th Tour title and pushed his career earnings past the US$100 million mark with a four-stroke victory at The American Express gold championships.

With overnight leader Kim Si-woo and 18-year-old Blades Brown fading out of contention, world number one Scheffler finished the final round with a 6-under 66. His 27-under 261 total ensured that he won his nine straight victories on the Tour when entering a final round either tied for the lead or trailing by one shot.

Ryan Gerard, Jason Day, Matt McCarty and Andrew Putnam all tied for second at 23 under, with Day firing the round of the day, a closing 64.

For Gerard, it was the second straight week in second spot, after finishing solo second at last week’s Sony Open in Hawaii.

Scheffler’s 20th career Tour victory, all of which have come in a four-year span, sees his career earning soar to third place in the list, behind Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

The 29-year-old Scheffler wedged his opening approach 133 yards to 4 feet before rolling in the birdie, one of eight birdie putts converted from inside 5 feet in the final round.

He carded a bogey at the second hole, which dropped him two back of Si-woo, but that was about the only flaw in his final round.

Both Si-woo and Brown finished on two-over rounds, to finish T-6 and T-18 repectively.

Scheffler turned in 4-under 32, and after flipping lob wedges to close range at Nos. 12 and 14, he found himself five ahead of the pack.

By the time Scheffler reached the par-3 17th, the hole with the island green known as “Alcatraz,” escaping another romp by the world No. 1 required an impossible journey. Scheffler rinsed his tee shot there and made double, but it mattered little.

His 20^th title 151 starts puts him behind Woods, who took just 95 starts to reach the same marker at the 2000 US Open.

Ryan Gerard, Jason Day, Matt McCarty and Andrew Putnam all tied for second at 23 under, with Day firing the round of the day, a closing 64.

Brown, who played his eighth straight day of competitive golf dating to last Sunday’s first round of the Korn Ferry Tour’s Bahamas Great Abaco Classic, stayed in the mix until a double bogey at the par-5 fifth. He also bogeyed two of his final four holes to miss out on a top-10 finish and spot in next week’s Farmers Insurance Open.

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