For a man who has never blown a 54-hole lead – he’s 7-for-7 in closing them out including both his major wins at the Masters – it felt very much like a done deal. “F@€& yeah, baby!” the typically stoic Scheffler shouted as he pumped his fist in a way he rarely ever does on a Sunday when his 9-footer for birdie on the brutal 18th hole dropped on Saturday evening. “Wherever the emotion came from, you know, felt like an important part of the round to finish off the round the right way,” he said. The galleries packed around the finishing hole rose up in an extended chorus of “Scottie! Scottie! Scottie!” chants that let any players still on property know their hopes of securing the Wanamaker Trophy were gravely diminished. The “Rory! Rory! Rory!” chants didn’t start at Augusta last month until the playoff was over. “He’s in a spot where it would be shocking if he doesn’t win today,” said Xander Schauffele after finishing Sunday an hour before Scheffler even started. This week always felt like “PGA: Endgame” since the opening round, with Scheffler playing the role of Thanos from Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame.” Scheffler seemed “inevitable” since he fashioned a day-one 69 despite a mud-ball induced double on the 16th hole. Officially, Scheffler was tied 20th after one round, but anyone glancing at the star-deprived leaderboard above him knew Scheffler was the man to beat with reigning Masters champ Rory McIlroy shooting 74 and Schauffele, the defending PGA champion, 72. By Saturday morning, the leaderboard more resembled a Texas Open than a major championship, with Scheffler (at T5) the lone OWGR top-10 player among the top 47 entering the weekend. Of the top 16 leaders at the midpoint, only two ranked among the top 45 in the world (Robert MacIntyre at No. 22 was the other). The average world ranking of the other 14 leaders was 80.9. It was from there that the PGA finally came alive. Crowds flocked to Quail Hollow on Saturday and the first vibration of energy seemed to conjure a little magic in the biggest names still on site and within a shout of contention Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau – LIV Golf’s two biggest stars – started making serious noise to break through the clutter of no-names. At one point on the back nine, Scheffler, DeChambeau and Rahm were all tied for the PGA Championship lead at 7-under par – tantalizing with the promise that for first time in history a trio of multiple-major winners could share the top rung on a major championship leaderboard and loaded for a Sunday shootout. This PGA was going from a dud to a certifiable classic. And then – SNAP – it was over. Rahm gave back a stroke on 17 but figured he was still right there when he walked off the course still tied with Scheffler on 6-under at that moment. DeChambeau started making bad shots on the Green Mile and started blaming everything but his own misjudgment on the three strokes he coughed up down the stretch that turned his brief lead into an eventual six-shot deficit. That’s when Scheffler started gathering infinity stones down the stretch and snapped his fingers to eliminate all notable threats. From his tap-in eagle on the drivable 14th to his stroke-stealing birdie from a fairway divot on 18, he was superlative. The only hole he parred coming home was the 16th, where he delivered probably his best approach of the day to 12 feet and got fooled like everyone else by the uphill breaking putt. It was an absolute masterclass in how to seize control of a tournament. Left standing with him in the final two pairings were three players – Alex Noren, Davis Riley and J.T. Poston – Paddy Power would be willing to offer long odds could catch the man who’s never lost a 54-hole lead. With the chants of his name still ringing in his ears, Scheffler had to remind himself Saturday night that he still has a job to finish on Sunday. This isn’t LIV Golf, after all. “These tournaments are very important to us, and you work your whole life to have a chance to win major tournaments, any tournament for that matter, and tomorrow I have a good opportunity to go out there and try and win the golf tournament,” he said. “But it’s going to take another really good round. There’s a lot of great players chasing me on the leaderboard and someone is going to put up a great round and it’s up to me to go out there and have another really good round and finish off the tournament.” Scheffler can’t control what anybody else does. Somebody could shoot the round of their lives and catch him, as Rahm was doing cutting Scheffler’s lead down to one stroke at the final turn. But the most controlled golfer on the planet is the least likely candidate to do too much to help the field (though making the turn at 2-over was more generous than anyone expected. As the man who turned in the Wanamaker Trophy after a year in possession of it said, it would be shocking if anybody other than Scheffler was holding it Sunday night.