Scottie Scheffler began the final round of the BMW Championship trailing by four shots. He ended the day with a two-shot win, his fifth title of the season, and his 18th career victory on the PGA TOUR. After round three, Scheffler said it would be his job to “chase down” MacIntyre and he did just that despite a challenging final day.
“It was a tough day out there,” Scheffler said. “The greens got really tough to putt there towards the end, and it was a challenging day.”
Scheffler carded a final-round 67 at Caves Valley Golf Club to finish at 15-under-par. MacIntyre, who had led wire-to-wire through three rounds, struggled to a 3-over 73 and finished runner-up at 13-under.
“I was starting four shots back but got myself into the tournament pretty quickly there on the front nine and did a lot of good stuff out there,” Scheffler said. “Would have liked to have had a few less mistakes, but overall great battle all the way through. Did a good job of staying patient and executing when we needed to.”
The defining moment came at the par-3 17th. After MacIntyre made birdie at 16 to close the gap, Scheffler responded with a clutch chip-in from off the green.
“I knew it was an important shot in the golf tournament,” he said. “Bob made a nice birdie there on 16, and I knew it was going to be a battle all the way until the end… When that chip goes in, you know it’s a pretty cool shot, but the job is not nearly finished after that.”
Scheffler credited his fill-in caddie, Brad “Cromie” Cromer, who stepped in for longtime caddie Ted Scott this week.
“Cromie was doing a great job. He’s a guy I can trust. He’s one of Ted’s good buddies,” Scheffler said. “I felt like we did a good job of talking through our shots and staying patient… Closed the tournament out nicely.”
Scheffler’s closing 67 capped a week of consistent play: rounds of 66-65-67-67. His two-shot comeback tied for the second-largest of his PGA TOUR career and earned him 2,000 FedExCup points. He will enter the TOUR Championship as the No. 1 seed for the fourth straight year, looking to become the first back-to-back FedExCup champion.
“It’s been a nice stretch the last few years and I’ve done some really good things,” Scheffler said. “That’s not something I think about day-to-day. I try to approach everything week by week, and when you really boil down to it, just day by day.”
MacIntyre was seeking his third TOUR win and a spot in the record books as the first wire-to-wire winner of the BMW Championship since 2017. Instead, he became the first player since 1976 to lead after each of the first three rounds and not win the event.
Despite the disappointment, Scheffler offered praise for his final-round playing partner.
“Bob is a great player,” he said. “He should be proud of the fight that he had this week, and it was a good battle out there.”