Fortuitous drop aids Scottie Scheffler’s close call at British Open

SOUTHPORT, England — The scene that played out late Sunday at Royal Birkdale Golf Club’s 17th hole felt reminiscent of the last time this historic venue hosted The Open Championship.

Back in 2017, it was Jordan Spieth who was embroiled in a wild rules situation at Birkdale’s 13th. This time it was Scottie Scheffler on the penultimate hole.

Spieth won that year. Was Scheffler about to win now?

It all felt on the table as Scheffler charged up the leaderboard, aided by a fortuitous break at the 17th when he was granted a free drop after an errant second shot and made birdie.

Scheffler hit his approach over a tented area short and left of the 17th green and was granted relief for a Temporary Immovable Object (TIO), despite never finding his golf ball. A rules official informed Scheffler that he didn’t actually need to find the ball to get relief, at which point Scheffler stopped searching and took a drop back in the rough, 90 yards from the pin.

“Teddy had a beat right on where it was coming down,” Scheffler said. So when we get up there, it's past the fence that marks the TIO, so (the referee) said anything that's in there is it part of the TIO.”

According to Model Local Rule 23F, if the player’s ball has not been found but is known or virtually certain to have come to rest in a TIO, the player may take relief by using the estimated point where the ball last crossed the edge of the TIO.

“I said, 'If I find it, does that help me; can I drop it – since that would be about 50 yards closer to the hole?' (The referee) said, 'Yes, you can then use that spot, but you might have to go to the other side of the TIO,' which I didn't know exactly where that would be, and that's not a great angle coming across there,” Scheffler added. “So decided to stop the search and go back and drop it doing point-of-entry TIO relief. Actually, I did that once this year during the Byron (THE CJ CUP BYron Nelson) as well. Not something I'm proud of, but I was familiar with.”

Scheffler took full advantage of the break, spinning a wedge to 11 feet and holing the birdie putt. That moved Scheffler within a shot of clubhouse leader Cameron Young with one hole to play. Scheffler’s drive leaked right, and his recovery shot landed short and left of the green. Needing a birdie to tie, Scheffler hit his putt aggressively and blew it by, and he missed the comebacker to close with a bogey and finish 7-under overall, tied for fourth.

That Scheffler was close to winning at all is remarkable given the tenor of his week. The American struggled to putt effectively for the first 54 holes, ranking near the bottom of the field on the greens. He began the day six strokes back of Sam Burns, but after birdieing the par-4 12th, Scheffler reached 8 under. But to win, Scheffler needed to be flawless down the stretch, and dropped shots at the 13th and 15th cost him, even as he grabbed the shots right back with birdies at Nos. 16 and 17. He shot 67 in the final round.

The result assured he would not win a major in 2026 after winning three in the last two seasons. The world No. 1 is still stuck on one victory this season, which came in his debut at The American Express in January.

“I definitely don't regret any of the decisions that I made either off the tee or going into greens today,” Scheffler said. “I did a good job of staying aggressive and was committed to what I'm doing and I was very proud of kind of how I played this week when I felt like things weren't going necessarily my way. It was mentally for me I think a really, really good week.”

A good week, but not a great one – true this week and for most of his season.