AUGUSTA, Ga. — On Sunday morning before the final round of the Masters, Scottie Scheffler felt overwhelmed again.
Two years ago, he was seeking his first major title and wasn’t sure if he was ready for that breakthrough. He felt anxious and broke into tears before his wife Meredith’s calming presence helped him find an inner peace that led him to victory. Two years later, Scheffler was in position to win another green jacket but this time Meredith was back home in Dallas awaiting the birth of their first child later this month. So, Scheffler sat around with some of his best childhood friends, who stepped in to deliver the words he needed so he could overcome his biggest foe: himself.
“I told them, I wish I didn’t want to win as badly as did I or as badly as I do. I think it would make the mornings easier,” Scheffler recounted. “But I love winning. I hate losing. I really do. And when you’re here in the biggest moments, when I’m sitting there with the lead on Sunday, I really, really want to win badly. And my buddies told me this morning, my victory was secure on the cross. And that’s a pretty special feeling to know that I’m secure for forever and it doesn’t matter if I win this tournament or lose this tournament. My identity is secure for forever.”
What a win. #themasters pic.twitter.com/kxtCFZgmMd
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 15, 2024
Scheffler’s reputation as the best player in golf keeps growing as he turned in another dominant performance, winning for the third time in his last four starts and claiming his ninth career PGA Tour title. He made seven birdies, including six in a nine-hole span, to shoot 4-under 68 at Augusta National Golf Club and win the 88th Masters by four shots over Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg.
Augusta National always brings out the brilliance in the game’s preeminent players – from Arnold Palmer to Jack Nicklaus to Tom Watson and Tiger Woods – and makes their greatness shine. The course also can expose any weakness and has a way of separating good from great golf. Rory McIlroy has yet to produce the goods at the Masters but he’s experienced stretches of brilliance during his career and game recognized game as he touted Scheffler’s remarkable run.
“Not a lot of clutter,” McIlroy said of Scheffler’s mental approach. “The game feels pretty easy when you’re in stretches like this.”
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon amid the towering Georgia pines and beneath a robin-blue sky, Scheffler’s various super powers were on display and he intimidated his competition into the type of mistakes that he’s learned to eliminate in his latest victory spurt.
“You have to stay patient and trust in all aspects of your game,” Scheffler said.
Scheffler raced out of the gate with a bogey-free 66 on Thursday, endured swirling winds and shot even-par 72 when scores ballooned on Friday and bounced back from his lone rough patch of the tournament – a double bogey at 10 and bogey at 11 – by making an eagle at 13 on Saturday and shoot 71 to claim a one-stroke lead heading into the final round.
“He is pretty amazing at letting things roll off his back and stepping up to very difficult golf shots and treating them like their own. He’s obviously a tremendous talent, but I think that is his superpower,” said Max Homa, who shot 73 and finished T-3.
Scottie Scheffler returns his lead to three strokes. #themasters pic.twitter.com/7dqcHbx6uJ
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 14, 2024
MASTERS: Photos | Prize money | All-time Masters money
In the final round, Scheffler had to fend off Homa, Aberg (69), who was trying to win a major in his first major championship, and Collin Morikawa (74), who was seeking the third leg of the career Grand Slam. The four players shared the lead as Scheffler neared the turn before each of Scheffler’s closest pursuers made a critical error. That’s what Scheffler does. He makes some of the best golfers in the world hit shots they aren’t comfortable hitting. He dragged them into the deep end of the pool to see if they can swim with him. First to sink was Morikawa, who made double bogeys at Nos. 9 and 11.
“Greed got the best of me,” Morikawa said.
Aberg erred at No. 11 too, drawing his second shot too much and it bounced off the bank and into the pond. His hopes of becoming the first Masters rookie since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 to win the title drowned with that costly double.
“I knew I couldn’t miss left and I missed it left,” he said.
Homa’s tee shot at the par-3 12th sailed over the green into a bush and he made double too.
“You just know that Scottie’s just going to play well, and he’s going to be there, and you’re going to have to do something special at some point, chip in, make a long putt, and I just didn’t do that,” Homa said.
Scheffler was there thanks to a tidy short game early, a clutch 10-foot birdie putt at No. 9 and some deadly iron shots that built him a comfortable cushion as he signed for a 72-hole total of 11-under 277.
Scheffler’s lob wedge at the ninth spun back to within inches and his approach at No. 10 danced to 9 feet to set up his third birdie in a row. He made a bogey at No. 11 but got the stroke back after attachking the par-5 13th in two and stuffing another short iron to tap-in range at 14. He finished off the birdie binge with another iron to 9 feet at the par-3 16th.
“He seems to be good at everything. He doesn’t really have a weakness,” Scheffler’s caddie Ted Scott said. “I think people created a weakness in his putting. He’s not a weak putter. He’s a good putter. He’s a very good putter.”
On his way to sign his scorecard, Scheffler paused to give his putting coach, Phil Kenyon, a bear hug and lifted him off the ground. Scheffler won the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year award last season, but a balky putter kept him from what otherwise might have been a historic season. After Scheffler failed to win the Tour Championship in August, he and his agent Blake Smith discussed his putting woes on the plane ride home.
“We kind of look at each other, and I think we both were thinking the same thing. And we both looked at each other, and I was like, ‘You know, I want to see a putting coach.’ Blake goes, ‘I think that’s a good idea. Let’s talk to Randy,’” Scheffler recalled.
Randy would be Randy Smith, Scheffler’s coach for the last 20 years and also Blake’s father. This was a significant decision.
“For me to have to bring in somebody else could have been a shot to his ego and he may not have wanted me to do it. But Randy sat there and he said, ‘You know what, I think it’s the right time.’ We called Phil, and about a week later he came in, had a visit. We worked for a couple days, and, yeah, now we’re here,” Scheffler said.
Scheffler began using a mallet putter in March at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and it has made a world of difference. Scheffler took 109 putts this week en route to victory.
“His whole putting-majig he was going through, I knew he was going to get out of,” Morikawa said. “But to see what he’s doing with his irons is crazy impressive because he’s hitting every shot, he’s moving both directions, and it’s something that I admired.”
That’s high praise from Morikawa, who has been considered the heir to the throne long-held by Tiger Woods as the best iron player in the game. Scheffler has become dominant with his ballstriking. Morikawa’s caddie J.J. Jakovac joked, “It’s probably a little easier to stop a 7-iron or 8-iron than the skinny 5-iron that I hit. But you play with what you got.”
Scheffler dominated the par 5s the way Woods once did, playing them in 9 under this week. He has yet to shoot a round over par this season. He earned consecutive wins at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship before a T-2 in his last start at the Texas Children’s Houston Open two weeks ago on the PGA Tour. He has seven top 10s in eight starts on Tour this season with a worst finish of T-17 at the American Express back in January.
“Scottie has a way of making the extraordinary look ordinary,” said Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee. “You don’t realize until you see his other competitors, these great players in the same spot as him, and they can’t quite match him shot for shot. They can’t quite match him with the nuance, and you begin to recognize his genius…small little differences, but they mean so much around here.”
Scheffler’s won two Masters titles in five starts — only Horton Smith who won two of the first three Masters played has done that faster. In the final round, Scheffler was the player who made the fewest mistakes. He credited Smith with instilling in him the importance of patience.
Scottie Scheffler walks off No. 15 during the third round of the Masters Tournament. (Photo: Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Network)
“I remember being 15, 16 years old and not winning as many times as I felt like I should and Randy would always say, ‘It’s not about who is the best when you’re 14 years old, it’s about who can be the best when you’re 25 years old.’ And he’s like, ‘It’s a long journey.’ ”
That journey has taken Scheffler to the summit of the game and his Masters triumph felt like a coronation for what has the potential to be a historic year.
“I feel like playing professional golf is an endlessly not satisfying career,” Scheffler said, but he will try to enjoy it before he tees it up again next week. “I will go home, soak in this victory tonight. Will definitely enjoy the birth of my first child. But with that being said, I still love competing. I don’t plan on taking my eye off the ball anytime soon, that’s for sure.”
