The 86th edition of the Masters Golf Championship is now in the record books. Scottie Scheffler is the newest owner of his very own green jacket, Tiger Woods showed the tenacity to not only make the 36-hole cut, but also walk all 72 holes, and for many golfers of note it was simply a matter of too little too late or just not enough to begin with.
It was just seven months ago that the last golfer picked onto the American squad for the 2021 Ryder Cup Matches at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin just so happened to be Scottie Scheffler. In today’s modern era of team competition, Team USA Captain Steve Stricker acknowledged that a good number of the golfers on the squad encouraged him to add the relatively unknown Scheffler to the team. Scheffler showed his value on Sunday afternoon when he took down world No. 1 Jon Rahm in the singles matches. The overwhelming theme was that it was just a matter of time before Scheffler would win on the PGA Tour.
The 2022 portion of the wraparound 2021-22 season dawned in January and it has been all about Scottie Scheffler with wins at the loud and boisterous Phoenix Open, a classic win in Arnie’s tournament at Bay Hill, and then a seven-match triumph at the ultra-quirky Austin Country Club in the World Match Play. It was a most impressive three wins as Phoenix is a wide open TPC-styled course, Bay Hill is very watery, and Austin CC is one diabolical dogleg hole after another. What Scottie accomplished over those three wins not only made his year but also vaulted him from 15th place in the world rankings to world No. 1.
Then came the 2022 Masters. Most of the talking heads focused on the return of Tiger Woods, 14 months after recovering from a devastating car wreck. The Tiger watch allowed the likes of Rory McIlroy to fly under the radar in his quest to win the career slam. There wasn’t a lot of talk about Scheffler either. Most prognosticators felt that Scottie’s accomplishments at Phoenix, Bay Hill and Austin were about as much as one could expect from the 25-year-old.
Scheffler opened play Thursday with a solid 69 that left him in contention, two strokes behind Sungjae Im and one stroke behind Players champ Cameron Smith. It was a rock-solid leader board with past Masters champs Danny Willett and Dustin Johnson posting 69s alongside Joaquin Niemann and Scheffler. The rest of the top 10 was an equally impressive array of talent, including Patrick Cantlay, Daniel Berger, Tony Finau, Will Zalatoris, Webb Simpson, Kevin Na, Harold Varner III and the ultra-impressive Tiger Woods. Some 24 hours later the Masters would be as good as over.
On a brutally tough day at Augusta National with ever-changing weather and intense winds, Scheffler teed off in the final pairing of the day on Friday. He carded a 5-under-par 67 on a day when the average score was way over par. Scheffler ended up with a 36-hole aggregate score of 136 and found himself five strokes ahead of those closest to him. Yes, golfers have lost five-stroke leads in the middle of golf tournaments in the past, but Scottie’s round on a difficult day two had all the looks of a romp down victory lane. True, other golfers of note were among the top 10, but five strokes is a really big lead. It would turn out to be more than enough.
Scheffler would add a pair of 71s over the weekend, and although Cameron Smith did get within one stroke of Scottie after two holes on Sunday morning, it was the last gasp from the field at the Masters. Scheffler averages 309 yards off the tee, which makes him the 24th-longest driver among his touring peers. Most importantly he is 15th when it comes to greens in regulation. On a course that favors the iron master, Scheffler hit some of the more memorable middle and long iron shots during his journey to victory at the Masters. On Saturday evening, Scottie pulled his tee shot on the 18th hole into the trees and bushes. He had to take an unplayable lie. From there he launched a 238-yard iron to just past the flagstick and got down in two more strokes for a timely bogey. On Sunday when the heat was turned up highest, Scheffler went flag hunting on the 14th hole and hit his iron shot to 2 feet for a crucial birdie. A hole-out chip shot on the third hole Sunday and a great up-and-down on the watery par-3 12th hole demonstrated why pundits argue that Scheffler has no weaknesses in his game. In the end, the Masters wasn’t a nail-biter. That’s because Scottie Scheffler made sure of it.
The Masters also had its usual array of interesting tidbits. For instance, Ted Scott walked off the 18th green on Sunday with his third Masters win. Scott is Scheffler’s relatively new caddie. He was on the bag for Bubba Watson when he won his two Masters titles.
McIlroy finished in second place because of a brilliant 64 on Sunday. While Rory was no real threat to Scottie Scheffler on Sunday afternoon, it was nice to see McIlroy play like it was 2011 all over again. The owner of four major titles, Rory needs to win the Masters to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tiger Woods as the only men to have won all four grand slam tournaments in their career. Rory now has seven top-10 finishes at the Masters and will have to wait another 51 weeks to get that career grand slam. It’s much easier said than done. Just ask Arnie, Tom Watson, Phil, Jordan, Byron and others.
Aside from the play of Scottie Scheffler and the long walk of Tiger Woods, perhaps the most intriguing story of the week was the Augusta National Golf Club. Ever since 25 years ago when Tiger beat Augusta National into submission, hitting holes like the par-5 13th and 15th holes with driver and then pitching wedge, the course has gone out of its way to keep it from being an afterthought. Distance is continually added to some of the holes as well as placement of differing tee boxes to enhance the hard angles of the course. It was quite nice to see the best golfers in the world attempt to attack the back-nine par-5s with 3-woods and 5-woods. Not every world class golf course has the ability and the money to buy more land. Yet the magic of the Masters is in its history. We recall Gene Sarazen’s “shot heard round the world” when he holed out a 4-wood on the 15th hole on final-round Sunday in 1935 to tie for the tournament lead. He would beat Craig Wood the next day in a playoff. We will always remember Sarazen’s 4-wood. We don’t need to see a modern day double-eagle on that very same hole because someone can hole out an 8-iron. The tradition of the Masters lives on. So too does the recent dominance of Scottie Scheffler. So it’s on to Tulsa and the PGA in May.
