Sometimes it feels that Scottie Scheffler is inevitable. He’ll hang around, hang around, and rise up the leaderboard on Sunday afternoon as others fade down the stretch – from barely in the mix to serious contention on the final few holes, and maybe a title.

Scheffler didn’t win the 125th U.S. Open at Oakmont, but that pattern held true as Sunday afternoon progressed in western Pennsylvania – even in a week where he didn’t always feel comfortable with his swing and worked through multiple lengthy range sessions, sometimes in animated fashion, with his longtime instructor Randy Smith. Scheffler is a famously maniacal competitor, and that’s what he does: He hangs around.

Scheffler was eight back heading into the final round – the largest U.S. Open final-round comeback is seven shots (Arnold Palmer in 1960) – but he rallied to within two strokes at one point, a moment when it felt he had a genuine chance. That’s what he does. And had he putted a bit better, there’s a realm he would’ve raised another major trophy Sunday evening.

“My main takeaway is I battled as hard as I did this week,” Scheffler said afterward. “I was really proud mentally of how I was over the course of four days.”

Scheffler tied for seventh at 4-over 284, five strokes back of winner J.J. Spaun, who closed in birdie-birdie – including a 64-foot birdie on the 72nd hole – to earn his first major title and complete a mid-career renaissance from losing his TOUR card four years ago. It wasn’t the desired outcome for Scheffler, who earned his third major title at last month’s PGA Championship, but it was more of what we’ve come to expect from the world No. 1. Even if he doesn’t have his best game (midway through Friday’s second round, he was in serious jeopardy of missing the cut), he finds a way to factor into the late-Sunday conversation.

After a birdie at the par-4 17th on Sunday, Scheffler stood 3 over for the week and was just two off the lead at the time (before Spaun finished birdie-birdie for the win). This was despite a three-putt bogey from 9 feet at the par-4 11th, one of several three-putts on the week (including a three-putt from 12 feet at the 17th in Friday’s second round). Despite all that, Scheffler stood on the tee at the 72nd hole with a chance at completing the third leg of the career Grand Slam – with a birdie at Oakmont’s par-4 18th, he would’ve needed the leaders to make one bogey apiece to earn a spot in a two-hole aggregate playoff.

It didn’t happen, as Scheffler found the right rough off the tee and was forced to lay up, leading to a bogey that essentially eliminated him from contention. (It was a common theme in a week where he hit just 29 of 56 fairways and admittedly battled his swing at points.) Although he has yet to win a U.S. Open, he has now finished in the top seven in four of his last five starts at his national open – and has recorded top-10 finishes in 14 of his last 18 major starts overall. To say he’s a serious major-championship player is an understatement, and it’s way too early to suggest he’s developing any scar tissue at the U.S. Open. He’ll be back – probably for decades to come.

“A few more putts drop today, I think it's a little different story,” Scheffler added. “I did a lot of things out there that could really kind of break a week, and I never really got that one good break that kind of propels you.

“I was playing kind of behind the eight ball most of the week hitting the ball in the rough. Overall, proud of how I battled, gave myself a chance, but ultimately didn't have enough.”