Scottie Scheffler lifted the Claret Jug at Royal Portrush on Sunday, closing the 153rd Open with a round of 68 to win by four strokes. He finished on seventeen under par, a total of 267 over the four days, clear of runner-up Harris English. With the win, the American takes three legs of the career Grand Slam.
How it was decided
The championship was, in truth, settled before Sunday. Scheffler opened with a 68, then produced a career-low major round of 64 on Friday, then extended his lead with a bogey-free 67 on Saturday. He walked to the first tee on the final day four shots ahead. The lead never truly shrank.
He started fast on Sunday, making three birdies in his first five holes. The one alarm came at the eighth, a 464-yard par four. His tee shot found the fairway bunker, his second struck the lip and rebounded, and the double bogey that followed briefly narrowed the margin. He answered with steady play across the closing nine. By the finish he had recorded only one over-par hole across the final thirty-six. The chasing pack, which included Rory McIlroy on home ground and the major winners Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau, made noise but no dent. DeChambeau's Sunday 64 and McIlroy's earlier charge stirred the crowd; neither reached him.
Afterward, Scheffler set the win in plain terms.
"To only have one double bogey, really only one over par hole in the last 36 holes of a major championship, that's how you're able to win these tournaments."He said it without flourish, which is his manner.
Where it sits in his story
This is a fourth major, and a second of 2025. In May he took the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow by five strokes, and the pattern at Portrush was familiar: a front-running lead, held without visible strain. Before that came Olympic gold at Paris in 2024, seized with a closing 62, and two green jackets at Augusta, in 2022 and 2024. The rise has been steady rather than sudden. He reached World No. 1 in March 2022 after the Match Play in Austin and has largely stayed there since.
What the Open adds is a link, and a course, that did not suit the caricature of him as a purely American champion. The Dunluce Links, the weather, and a gallery that did not want him to win were all part of the test. He passed each without drama. The links major had been the missing line on his record. It is missing no longer.
Three legs of the Slam now sit behind him. Only Augusta's counterpart abroad, the U.S. Open, remains. For Scheffler, that is simply the next room in a house he keeps quietly filling.
