AUGUSTA (AP) – Scottie Scheffler spent more time looking at his feet than any of the white leaderboards at Augusta National, all of them showing what everyone was watching – a Masters champion again, the undisputed best player in golf.
He prefers to stay in his own little world, population one. Nobody is close to him in the game at the moment.
Scheffler is number one in the world by a margin not seen since Tiger Woods in his prime. In nine tournaments this year, he doesn’t have a round over par and has earned over USD15 million. And Monday, he delivered the greatest piece of evidence when he slipped into that green jacket.
Scheffler pulled ahead with magnificent shots around the turn, poured it on along the back nine as his challengers melted away with mistakes and closed with a 4-under 68 to claim his second Masters in three years with a
four-shot victory.
“I had a lot of really talented players trying to chase me down, and I knew pars weren’t going to get it done,” Scheffler said.
Unlike two years ago when he won his first major, there were no doubts Monday, no tears, and no wife to reassure him he was built for a moment like this. His wife, Meredith, was home in Dallas expecting their first child at the end of the month. Scheffler made sure there was no drama, either.
Much like Woods he made the outcome look inevitable with sublime control, the difference being a peach shirt instead of red, and no fist pumps until it was over. After sharing hugs with caddie Ted Scott and Collin Morikawa, Scheffler turned to face the crowd with both arms raised. “Wooooo!” he yelled, slamming his fist.
Masters newcomer Ludvig Aberg, among four players who had a share of the lead at one point, lost ground with his approach went into the pond left of the 11th hole and he made double bogey. Against a player like Scheffler, those mistakes are not easy to overcome.
Aberg closed with a 69 and was the runner-up, not a bad debut for someone playing in his first major championship.
Morikawa, who had two double bogeys to fall out of the hunt, shot 74 and tied for third with Tommy Fleetwood (69) and Max Homa (73), whose hopes ended on the par-3 12th with a double bogey from the bushes, not Rae’s Creek. “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,” Homa said about Scheffler. “He’s obviously a tremendous talent, but I think that is his superpower.”
Woods, meanwhile, closed with a 77 and finished in last place at 16-over 304, the highest 72-hole score of his career. This came two days after he set the Masters record for making his 24th consecutive cut.
The 27-year-old Scheffler is the fourth-youngest player to have two green jackets.
He now has three victories against the strongest fields – Bay Hill, The Players Championship and the Masters – in his last four starts. The other was a runner-up finish in Houston.
Scheffler finished at 11-under 277 and earned USD3.6 million from the USD20 million purse.
