CROMWELL, Conn. – There were some thoughts, in the back of some minds, that Scottie Scheffler just might be able to pull off a miraculous comeback as the world No. 1 and reigning Travelers champion fought to make up for his disastrous Saturday – which happened to be his 29th birthday.

Scheffler was tied with Tommy Fleetwood for the 36-hole lead on Friday, but gave it all away with a triple bogey on No. 1 and a double on No. 8 on Saturday. Still, nine shots back, Scheffler never fell out of the rear view mirror on Sunday. He finished his final round with a bogey-free 65, closing the tournament at 12-under, at one point getting to within two shots of the lead.

“I think obviously I was looking for a little bit more, but overall not a bad week. If I have a different day yesterday I think it’s a different story, but can’t be perfect every day, just trying to do my best and, yeah, I fought back nicely today and posted a decent score,” Scheffler said. “Today was the first day where I’ve been bogey-free, and I think this is a golf course where limiting your mistakes is really important. You’re going to get opportunities, but you got to limit your mistakes, and this week I just wasn’t able to do that.”

Scheffler lingered, giving himself a chance to take advantage of mistakes made at the top of the leaderboard early on, but the leaders eventually settled down and by the time Scheffler went into the clubhouse, he was out of the picture.

Rory McIlroy was in the same position, also nine shots back to start the final round before shooting a 65 and tying Scheffler at 12-under. The two saw identical results on the back nine, both making birdie on No. 11, 13 and 15.

“It was a good way to end the week. Yeah, sort of good, positive vibes going into a couple-week break here and get ready for Scotland and The Open Championship,” McIlroy said. “But, yeah, definitely saw some positive signs in the game overall, which was really good to see. Looking forward to getting back over to my neck of the woods for a couple weeks and be prepared for a little bit of links golf.”

Spaun back to earth

J.J. Spaun just needed a few rounds to get back in the swing of things following the week of a lifetime after winning the U.S. Open. Dropping to 7-over par at one point during the second round, Spaun shot a bogey-free 66 on Saturday and made six birdies on the front nine to start the final round.

Spaun finished his best round of the tournament with a 63, closing at 7-under-par 273.

Withdrawals

Three more players withdrew from the tournament on Sunday as Eric Cole and Matti Schmid went down with an illness and Victor Hovland pulled out with a neck injury. Cole shot 68-67-69 to get to 6-under through 54 holes, and Hovland scored 66-75-63 before the final round. Jordan Spieth pulled out in the first round with neck and upper back tightness and Si Woo Kim withdrew on Friday a back injury.

“I warmed up on the range, felt great. I was just going to hit a little bit last couple drivers before I was going to go to the first tee, and hit one shot and then felt a little bit in my neck, but it didn’t, it felt fine, didn’t feel hardly anything at all, just felt like something was maybe brewing,” Hovland said. “Then the next shot that I hit with a driver it just felt like, yeah, it just cracked. I don’t know exactly what happened, but there’s something that happened and just couldn’t move.”

Notes

Joe Highsmith had an uneven lie in the rough up the hill to the right of the 15th green, but his chip found a perfect bounce onto the green and rolled in from 31 yards for eagle, bringing him to even-par for the tournament. … Harry Hall made the 13th eagle of the tournament on No. 13, the hole where Fleetwood made two eagles to build his lead. … Security was enhanced around the 18th green as tournament workers added two ropes, one low and one waist height, to prevent spectators from running onto the course after last year’s playoff round was disrupted by protestoes.

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