Scheffler’s hot run goes on at Masters
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Scottie Scheffler looked like a Masters champion even before slipping into his green jacket, the model of calm as he methodically worked his way around the most stressful course in major championship golf.
Sunday morning was different. That turned out to be the toughest test he had all day.
“I cried like a baby this morning. I was so stressed out. I didn’t know what to do,” Scheffler said after winning his first major. “I was sitting there telling (wife) Meredith, ‘I don’t think I’m ready for this’ … and I just felt overwhelmed.”
And then he capped off his torrid two-month stretch with his grandest feat of all, leading the entire weekend and strolling to a 1-under-par 71 — with one lapse at the end when it didn’t matter — for a three-shot victory over Rory McIlroy.
For a guy who had won three of his previous five tournaments, who reached No. 1 in the world, why suddenly be overcome with doubt?
“I think because it’s the Masters. I dreamed of having a chance to play in this golf tournament. I teared up the first time I got my invitation in the mail,” Scheffler said.
“If you’re going to choose a golf tournament to win, this would be the tournament,” he said. “You don’t know how many chances you’re going to get. And so having a chance — I had a five-shot lead on Friday and then a three-shot lead going into today — I don’t know if you get better opportunities.”
He felt peace between the ropes and never allowed himself to enjoy the moment until he took that famous walk up the 18th green, his ball 40 feet away and a five-shot lead.
“And you saw the results of that,” he said at his four-putt double bogey that affected only the margin of victory.
McIlroy holed out from the bunker on the final hole for a record-tying final round of 64. That pulled him within three shots, and his only hope for the final piece of the career Grand Slam was for the Sunday pressure to get to Scheffler.
No chance. Not on Sunday. Not the past four days. Not the past two months.
“You get on those hot streaks, and you just got to ride them out because they, unfortunately, don’t last forever,” Justin Thomas said. “But he is doing it in the biggest tournaments. … It’s really, really impressive to see someone that young handle a moment this big so easily.”
And to think that 56 days earlier, Scheffler was still trying to win his first PGA Tour title. Now he has won four of the past six he has played, the best stretch since Jason Day in summer 2015.
Scheffler overcame a nervy moment early by chipping in for birdie. He delivered key putts to keep Cameron Smith at bay and never looked rattled.
McIlroy was the runner-up. It was Smith who felt as though he let one get away. The Aussie was still in the game, three shots out of the lead, when he dumped his 9-iron in Rae’s Creek on the par-3 12th hole for triple bogey, ending his hopes.
“Just a really bad swing at the wrong time,” Smith said.
Smith closed with a 73 and tied for third with Shane Lowry, who birdied No. 18 for a 69.
Tiger Woods found consolation in playing four rounds in his first tournament since a February 2021 car crash shattered his right leg. He shot 78 and finished at 13-over 301, his highest 72-hole score at the Masters and furthest (23 shots) ever behind the winner.
Scheffler, who finished at 10-under 278, won $2.7 million from the $15 million prize fund. He has won $8,872,200 over his past six starts.