Incident involving Scottie Scheffler on the final hole of the Open caused the star to snub the media | Golf | Sport

Scottie Scheffler ended his campaign at The Open in embarrassing fashion when he failed to get past the ladies’ tee on the 72nd hole. The world number one was still fighting for victory at Royal Troon until the final round.

But Scheffler had a difficult Sunday and was unable to build on his consistent form of the previous days to claim a third major title. He began the day at two under par, just two shots behind last week’s leader Billy Horschel.

Scheffler’s solid performance over the first eight holes was undone when he made double bogey on the ninth, a hole he had played for par in previous rounds. Although he managed a birdie on the 16th hole to get his score back to three under par, where he had started the day, he was out of contention for the Claret Jug by that point.

On the final hole of the course, a visibly frustrated Scheffler ended his tournament run with a whimper, having only managed to hit his tee shot 137 yards on the final hole. The PGA Tour star knew immediately he had botched his shot, dropped his club and scratched his back as he saw the ball fly flat and drift left.

TV cameras initially struggled to locate the ball but eventually caught the moment it landed in the thick grass near the women’s tee mark, having to zoom in painfully close to where the ball landed, the Mirror reported.

A botched tee shot on the 18th hole resulted in a double bogey, leaving Scheffler discouraged, one stroke over par for the round and one stroke under par overall. Had he made a bogey, he would have finished alone in seventh place.

Instead, he was tied with his opponents Im Sung-jae and Jon Rahm, who both finished the fourth round at two and three under par respectively.

Frustrated with his result, the Masters champion ignored the press in the mixed zone after the tournament ended. Meanwhile, Xander Schauffele took the win, continuing his previous triumph at the PGA Championship in early May.

His outstanding performance in the final round ended with an impressive nine under par, leaving his challengers Justin Rose and Horschel just behind, who had to settle for joint second place.

Commenting on his great win, Schauffele explained that his calm mindset was crucial to his remarkable year. “Sometimes things go well and sometimes they don’t. When you play – today I felt like I really had a lot under control,” he said.

“I kind of held on to it and there was no chance I was going to let it go. I was pretty conscious of that and really wanted to make sure I did that.

“But for the most part, after all the tough losses in the past or the moments where I slipped up and dreamed too early on the back nine, I was able to pull myself together today and make sure that doesn’t happen.”