It’s easy to think of Scottie Scheffler as inevitable. When he fired a third-round 63 Saturday at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, and climbed into second place just four shots behind Davis Riley, the impulse was to expect the tournament to culminate in another victory for the World No. 1 playing close to his Dallas home.
Riley, ranked 250th in the world, decided to make his highly decorated playing partner earn it. And Scheffler couldn’t summon the goods. And he would have had to be really good to catch his fellow Texas resident.
Displaying the kind of punctilious ball striking that had helped him take control through 54 holes, Riley never gave Scheffler many openings and went on to an impressive five-stroke victory Sunday at breezy and broiling Colonial Country Club. An even-par 70 was more than good enough for Riley to capture his second PGA Tour title and his first individual crown after breaking through last year with Nick Hardy in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event.
More than once after posting a career-low 14-under 266, Riley summed up the challenge—that is the name on the marquee—of the final round, saying, “when you’ve got the World No. 1 golfer breathing down your neck you know it’s going to be difficult.”