Newly-crowned Open champion Scottie Scheffler: "It was fun to play spoiler"

Newly-crowned Open champion Scottie Scheffler says it was 'fun to play spoiler' at the final men's major. 

Scheffler began the fourth round at Royal Portrush with a comfortable lead over a group of chasers that included home favourite Rory McIlroy. 

Thousands of spectators lined the fairways at the Dunluce Links on Sunday with hopes they could will the 36-year-old to an unlikely victory on his homecoming. 

But in the end Scheffler's lead, as expected, proved unassailable and he won by four strokes over Harris English and seven clear of McIlroy. 

An emotional McIlroy, 36, said he tried his best to catch Scheffler but the American was just too dominant. 

Scheffler told reporters in his winner's news conference after the trophy presentation that he wasn't sure what reception he was going to receive on the 72nd hole. 

"It's a very cool walk," Scheffler said. "It's a very special walk. To be honest with you, walking up 18, I didn't really know if I was going to get that much support from the crowd. 

"The crowd, I think, wanted somebody else to win this week, and I kind of got to play spoiler a little bit, which was fun as well.

"It really was, it was a great reception. I heard a lot of the fans supporting me out there today. It was a really cool environment to be able to play in. 

"You had a lot of guys out there supporting the local favourites, and you had some people from the States coming out and supporting us. It was a really interesting day, but it was a lot of fun."

Scheffler was largely untroubled on Sunday. 

He threatened to allow the chasers a glimmer of hope with a rare mistake on the eighth hole. 

Scheffler tried, unsuccessfully, to reach the green with his second stroke despite being in a deep fairway bunker. 

It led to a double bogey and his advantage was reduced to four. 

Two more birdies, as well as mistakes from playing partner Haotong Li, ensured this was the procession many predicted. 

"It was challenging," Scheffler said. "The golf course was playing really tough, and I had to focus very hard over the course of the weekend."

"I would encourage them to listen to all of it"

Inevitably, there was a question from one scribe over the reaction to his widely-shared comments he made before the tournament began. 

Scheffler went on a five-minute soliloquy where he tried to explain his issues with trying to find motivation. 

Some former players, such as Sir Nick Faldo, said they struggled to understand the point Scheffler was attempting to illustrate. 

"I think we live now in a day and age where clickbait is kind of what people look for," Scheffler said. 

"You can shorten a five-minute clip into three words. I think it really underestimates what I was trying to communicate. Maybe I didn't do as effective of a job as I hoped to in communicating that.

"At the end of the day, I have a tremendous amount of gratitude towards moment like these. 

"I literally worked my entire life to become good at this game and play this game for a living. It's one of my greatest joys of my life to compete out here. 

"To be able to win The Open Championship here at Portrush is a feeling that's really hard to describe."

He continued: "I'm very fortunate to be able to come out here and live out my dreams. I just grew up a kid in Texas that wanted to play professional golf.

"I grew up wearing pants to the golf course because that's what I wanted to do. I saw professional golfers like Justin Leonard, Harrison Frazar, those types of guys on TV wearing pants, and I was like, I want to be like those guys. 

"So I used to wear pants to grow up to play golf. It would be 100 degrees out. I'd be way too hot. People would make fun of me. But that's what I wanted to do; I wanted to be a professional golfer, so I wore pants.

"I don't know why I'm so lucky that I get to live out my dreams, but it's something I'm very grateful for. 

"If somebody was going to listen to the comments I had this week, I would encourage them to listen to all of it, and I hope I did a good job communicating that, yeah, this is amazing to win the Open Championship, but at the end of the day, having success in life, whether it be in golf, work, whatever it is, that's not what fulfills the deepest desires of your heart.

"Am I grateful for it? Do I enjoy it? Oh, my gosh, yes, this is a cool feeling. I can't wait to get home and celebrate this championship with the people that have helped me along the way. 

"But at the end of the day, it doesn't fulfill the deepest desires of my heart.

"It's just tough to describe when you haven't lived it. It's something I actually talked to Shane [Lowry] about this week was just because you win a golf tournament or accomplish something, it doesn't make you happy. 

"It doesn't - maybe for a few moments, maybe for a few days, but at the end of the day, there's more to life than playing golf. 

"I'm pretty excited to go home and celebrate this one."