USA TODAY International Edition
Red- hot Scheffler cruises in Masters
AUGUSTA, Ga. – As the sun faded out on the horizon and the shadows cast by the Georgia Pines lengthened across the immaculate grounds of Augusta National Golf Club, a new dawn emerged in the world of golf on Palm Sunday.
Scottie Scheffler, the Big Kid from Big
D who is all of 25, is now the game’s supreme leader after capturing the green jacket in the 86th edition of the Masters.
With a final- round, 1- under- par 71, Scheffler finished with a 10- under total of 278, three shots clear of runner- up Rory McIlroy. His only baffling moment over four days came on the 72nd hole, when, armed with a five- shot lead, he four- putted from 41 feet, missing two putts from inside 3 feet.
He laughed off his gaffes. What mattered was he was the only player to break par in all four rounds – he shot 6967- 71- 71 – as he solidified his standing as the No. 1 player in the official world rankings with his first victory in a major.
“I’m just very thankful to be in this position,” Scheffler said. “I didn’t get to this press room in my dreams. It was definitely nice to build up a lead. Because there’s nothing safe on the back nine. It’s a long week and playing with the lead is not easy. I stayed patient and trusted myself all week.”
McIlroy, a green jacket shy of the career Grand Slam, rushed up the leaderboard with five birdies and an eagle in his first 13 holes, then finished with a birdie from out of the bunker on the last for a 64, the only bogey- free round of the week.
“I don’t think I’ve ever walked away from this tournament as happy as I am today,” McIlroy said. “I’ve played a really good round of golf, and it’s my best ever finish at Augusta. It’s not quite enough, but I’ll certainly look back on this day with very fond memories. It gives me confidence going forward not only into
the next Masters next year but to the rest of the season as well.”
Cameron Smith, who was in the final group with Scheffler and just three shots back at the start, pulled within one after two holes but was later done in by the devilish, par- 3 12th. He dunked his tee shot into Rae’s Creek and walked away six shots back after a triple- bogey 6. He rallied with two birdies on his final four holes to shoot 73 and finish in third at 5 under.
“The tee shot on 12, that was the tournament,” Smith said.
Joining Smith in third place was Shane Lowry, the 2019 British Open Championship winner, who birdied the final hole for a 69.
Five- time Masters champion Tiger Woods, who was victorious by just playing 14 months after nearly losing his life, shot 78 to finish well back.
Defending champion Hideki Matsuyama finished at 2 over after a 72.
Winless on the PGA Tour just two months ago, the victory was Scheffler’s fourth in six starts, with all the fields stacked with the game’s best players. The dominant stretch catapulted him to the top of the official world rankings, and his span of excellence had not been seen since 2015, when Jason Day, who was also No. 1 in the world at the time, won four tournaments in six starts, including his first major triumph on the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.
We’re talking Tiger- esque here. Speaking of Tiger Woods, he and Scheffler are the only players to win a major, a World Golf Championship and two other titles in a single season; Woods did is eight times.
Scheffler won’t be throw off kilter by the stretch. He’ll remain who he is – down to earth, humble, hard working.
“I’ve never been one who looks too far into the future,” he said. “I stay in the present and work on what I need to work on. I stay in the moment and enjoy it.
“I never thought I was that good at golf so I kept working hard.”
The work has paid off.
“What Scheffler’s doing is insane,” said 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed.
“The golf he’s played the last couple months, it’s nuts,” 2017 PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas said.
“Scottie has been playing phenomenal golf,” two- time major winner Collin Morikawa said.
The unflappable Scheffler, who was an amateur standout on many levels, held his nerve and stuck to his game plan despite many chances to change things up or unnecessarily gamble. He didn’t panic after his seven- shot lead in the third round dropped to just three at day’s end. He didn’t blink when Smith pulled within one with birdies on the first two holes on Sunday. He didn’t sweat when McIlroy came charging. And Scheffler didn’t wilt under the back- nine Sunday pressure that has battered many a player over the years.
Scheffler’s big early moment came on the par- 4 third hole, after his lead had fallen to one. Scheffler’s second shot came up short and left him 29 yards to the pin and well below the putting surface.
But the man with a deadly short game chipped his third into the hill, watched it pop up onto the green and then saw it roll in the cup for birdie.
“To have it go in was off the charts,” he said. “My goal was to get it up- anddown. I chipped it so good this week. We were able to put the ball in position to use my short game when I wasn’t swinging it so good.”
Scheffler upped his lead to four on the par- 3 fourth when he hit a nifty chip from 28 yards to tap- in range.
After Smith birdied the par- 4 11th to pull within three, Scheffler knocked in a 7- footer for par right afterward and then made a big 9- footer for par on the par- 3 12th to maintain his sizable advantage.
After maintaining his lead with birdies on the 14th and 15th holes, he got upand- down from 126 yards on the 17th for par and he took a five- shot lead to the 18th tee.
And now he gets to come back to the Masters for as long as he wants.
“That’s the coolest thing about this. I get to come here the rest of my life,” he said.
Woods has been coming here since 1995.
On the 25th anniversary of his ground- breaking, record- shattering, transformative win in the 1997 Masters, Woods completed his remarkable return to the game with a final- round 78. Playing in an official tournament for the first time in more than 500 days, and just 14 months removed from a highspeed, single- car crash north of Los Angeles that nearly cost him his life and left his right leg, ankle and foot severely damaged and is now held together by plates, screws and rods, Woods finished at 13 over.
“Just to be able to play, and not only just to play, but I put up a good first round. I got myself there,” Woods said. “I don’t quite have the endurance that I would like to have had, but as of a few weeks ago, didn’t even know if I was going to play in this event.
“We’re excited about the prospects of the future, about training, about getting into that gym and doing some other stuff to get my leg stronger, which we haven’t been able to do because it needed more time to heal. I think it needs a couple more days to heal after this, but we’ll get back after it, and we’ll get into it.”
Woods did tell SkySports, however, that he will play in the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews in Scotland in July. As for next month’s PGA Championship, he said he’d try to play.
Woods’ presence overshadowed the tournament from the time he arrived on the day before Masters week began. But come Friday, the lead actor was Scheffler, who has become one of the game’s biggest stars, just as his peers predicted.
It wasn’t a matter of if Scheffler would win, it was a matter of when. After an impressive showing in the Ryder Cup last fall, where he was 2- 0- 1 in the USA’s thrashing of Europe, which included a resounding singles victory against Jon Rahm, Scheffler won his maiden PGA Tour title in a playoff against Patrick Cantlay in the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February.
He secured his second title with a splendid Sunday charge in the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March. His third Tour victory came two weeks later in the World Golf Championships- Dell Technologies Match Play, where he went 61- 0, and made him No. 1 in the world.
“We all wish we had that two-, threemonth window when we get hot, and hopefully majors fall somewhere along that window,” said Woods, who has had many of those windows.
“Scottie seems to be in that window right now.”