2025 Players Championship: Scottie Scheffler three-peat may be most impressive feat of exceptional run​on March 12, 2025 at 2:56 pm

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Chances to three-peat don’t come around often in sports, let alone professional golf. In fact, the opportunity has never presented itself at The Players Championship before this year. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler enters as two-time reigning champion seeks a third straight win at TPC Sawgrass.

Scheffler became the first golfer to successfully defend his Players title last year when he miraculously caught Wyndham Clark and Xander Schauffele in the final round. Now, he seeks to add another chapter to his historic three-year stretch.

One of just seven players to win more than once at the PGA Tour’s flagship event, Scheffler has set his sights on the record. If achieved, he would sit alongside the most decorated major champion of all time, Jack Nicklaus.

“I would say, last year, this whole tournament was one of the best performances I’ve had in my career, for sure,” Scheffler recalled. “I think the way I played injured Friday and Saturday to just keep myself in the tournament took a lot of fight, a lot of heart. Definitely did not play golf the way I normally would, but I was so comfortable with my swing at the time that I was able to chip it around and play weird shots and somehow make pars and make some key birdies when I needed to. 

“I think about late on Saturday birdieing the last three holes to give myself just an outside chance and getting off to a good start the front nine the next day to put myself up near the lead. I fought really hard all week to have a chance and was fortunate at the end of the week to get it done.”

Multiple-time winners at Players Championship

Scheffler arrived at the PGA Tour’s flagship tournament this week in a decidedly different spot compared to the last two years: winless. He’s gone through the first two and a half months of the season without a victory — largely due to a Christmas Day dinner accident that delayed the start of his season. Not only has Scheffler been shut out of the winner’s circle, even his tee-to-green greatness has been caught by his peers.

In 2023 and 2024, Scheffler entered The Players roughly one stroke better per round from tee to green than the second-best respective players, Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele. It is not as if the falloff is that noticeable — Scheffler still comes in ranked No. 2 on the year behind Collin Morikawa — but that separator isn’t separating himself from the field … at least not yet.

“Last year is last year,” Scheffler said. “I’m not trying to replicate it. I’m not trying to look back on it. At the end of the day, it’s in the past. It was a great year. I’m tremendously thankful. I lived a full lifetime in a year. A lot of great things happened, and I’m very thankful for that. 

“But when it comes to this year, I’ve never been a guy that sets long-term goals. Like in terms of a season, I have what I would think of as dreams and aspirations, but my goal is to be as prepared as possible when I step up on the first tee and then I want to have a good attitude when I go out and play over each shot. And that’s how I view success.”

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Patrick McDonald

As each week passes, Scheffler shows more signs of breaking out. He led the field in strokes gained off the tee at the Arnold Palmer Invitational following a relatively middling performance with the big stick across the PGA Tour’s West Coast Swing. His iron play remains solid, and his short game has shined the last two tournaments. While the greens at Bay Hill may have frustrated the world No. 1, the putter had been in perfect sync before a poor showing at Arnie’s Place.

Some numbers are trending; others are working against him. Not only has no one gone back-to-back-to-back at TPC Sawgrass, but no one has done it at any tournament on the PGA Tour since Steve Stricker completed a three-peat at the 2011 John Deere Classic. There have only been six three-peats since 2000, and four of those belong to one man. You guessed it: Tiger Woods.

Opportunities like this are rare, conversions even more so. Then again, Scheffler has proven to be the exception to most rules during this run. He was able to win while injured at this event last season. He has been able to come back from astronomical deficits like at the Olympics. And maybe, he’ll be the first to pull off a three-peat at The Players much like he was the first to pull off the two-peat.

“It doesn’t suit one type of player,” Scheffler said of TPC Sawgrass. “I think some of the results you see here over time for guys where it’s not a horses-for-courses-type place, it’s just the guys that are playing the best are going to be on the leaderboard on Sunday. That’s plain and simple.”