Scottie Scheffler’s second Masters victory has large implications for the game.
Darren Riehl
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Six hours earlier than Scottie Scheffler toppled the golf world once more, a shockwave rippled by means of the Augusta Nationwide clubhouse.
The ultimate occasion of Masters week — the one which takes place yearly beneath the clubhouse’s huge oak tree for the ultimate few hours of Sunday earlier than the intense work begins — had been interrupted. It was early but, however not too early for a lightning bolt highly effective sufficient to straighten the spines of each inexperienced coat from right here to Atlanta. Its identify was Tiger Woods, and after a protracted week, his Masters was over.
Tiger, you could have heard, is a Masters legend. One in all perhaps three mononymous figures in membership historical past, the others being Arnie and Jack. And although he had thrashed and clawed in opposition to the good inexperienced tidal wave that’s Augusta Nationwide over the earlier 4 days, he had ultimately succumbed. Woods completed 16 over and alone in sixtieth, final amongst gamers who made the weekend.
The tip may be nearing for Tiger, who’s 48 and hampered by years of harm. However Tiger is an Augusta Nationwide legend, and at a membership that mythologizes its historical past and affluence and affect, turning into a legend is tough. In actual fact, within the 27 years since Woods introduced arrival with a 12-shot Masters win, no person has come shut. Which meant that even now, after a tough Masters end, Tiger Woods was nonetheless highly effective sufficient to halt Augusta Nationwide.
A hush fell over the clubhouse as he hustled off the 18th inexperienced. By the point he disappeared in a sweat-stained pink shirt, he had earned the world’s undivided consideration. The hush continued lengthy after he was gone.
It’ll for the remainder of his life.
Darren Riehl
AN HOUR AFTER TIGER DISAPPEARED, a distinct power rippled by means of Augusta Nationwide. It was time for the ultimate pairings on the ultimate day of the Masters, and time — maybe much more considerably — to reply the query on the minds of everybody within the sport of golf come Sunday morning:
Had golf discovered one other lightning bolt?
The reality that anybody with a pair of eyes might let you know heading into Augusta was that Scottie Scheffler was the most effective participant on the earth, interval. Not the most effective participant proper now. Not the most effective over the previous few weeks or months. However the most effective in a approach so head-and-shoulders above his opponents that even the blokes making an attempt to beat him couldn’t ignore it.
On Thursday afternoon, when Bryson DeChambeau jumped out to an early Masters lead within the morning pairings, ESPN’s cameras caught him in a second of very human disappointment. DeChambeau had sat down for his Butler Cabin interview seconds after Scheffler had despatched his second shot on the par-5 thirteenth tumbling into the abyss close to Rae’s Creek. What’d Scottie make? DeChambeau had requested, assuming that the World No. 1’s ball had dropped into the water.
“Birdie,” ESPN host Scott Van Pelt replied.
DeChambeau, eyes widening, couldn’t comprise his shock.
“Birdie?!” he stated.
However even when Scottie had earned a fame for being annoyingly good at golf, he hadn’t earned a fame for being transcendent. That kind of excellent belonged to the mononymous, the sort who might trigger a leaderboard to wilt below the burden of their momentum and who might topple an ideal golf course with sheer pressure of will. The type who might halt Augusta Nationwide.
That’s what Tiger would do. That’s what the Masters calls for. And Scottie? Effectively, he didn’t appear to have that gear. He was too folksy to destroy his opponents, too pleasant to have a killer intuition, too cordial to bend a sport to his will. His ball-striking was nice however his putter was weak. He didn’t have it.
The reality is that golf has seen loads of annoyingly good gamers through the years — gamers who might seize the World No. 1 rating and maintain it for months at a time — but it surely hasn’t seen a transcendent expertise in for much longer than that. The Masters is the right instance of why. It’s a check of a golfer’s mettle as a lot as it’s one in every of his would possibly. Profitable right here belongs to not the most effective hitters however to the most effective gamers, those who can keep away from the damaging spots and make the damaging putts and execute the damaging photographs with out collapsing below the burden of the strain.
Scheffler arrived on Sunday along with his solutions to these questions nonetheless hanging within the air. He’d performed effectively, actually effectively, over the primary few days. However he hadn’t blown away Augusta Nationwide, and his one-shot 54-hole lead gave the impression to be teetering. He’d gained right here already, which was an indication that he was ok to be nice. But when he had been really transcendent, he might present as much as Augusta Nationwide because the head-and-shoulders betting favourite and win anyway. He might flip his waltz round Augusta Nationwide with the Sunday lead right into a coronation of his victory. He might make it really feel like an inevitability, and he might make it look straightforward.
Any extra questions?
BY THE TIME HE TURNED FOR HOME, Scottie had Augusta Nationwide’s consideration once more.
He had all however gained the event on the twelfth inexperienced, watching along with his personal eyes as every of his three leaderboard working mates confirmed themselves the door at Amen Nook. Scheffler, alternatively, performed the stretch just about flawlessly, floating cautious approaches into 11, 12 and 13 and making clutch putts on every.
The gang ready to the aspect of the fifteenth gap shuddered when the leaderboard up to date to indicate that Scottie, already holding a three-shot lead, had jarred one other birdie on the 14th.
“You’re kidding me,” one patron stated.
“Once more?” stated one other.
Scheffler gave the impression to be bending the course to his will, turning Sunday right into a coronation. And, goodness, it felt straightforward. We’d seen a film of boring, unrelenting Masters brilliance earlier than, however solely a handful of occasions within the final a number of a long time. Every time the star was Tiger Woods.
However Scottie didn’t have Tiger’s killer intuition. He didn’t have Tiger’s will to win. He didn’t have Tiger’s means to halt Augusta Nationwide.
He had Scottie’s.
“I used to be sitting round with my buddies this morning, I used to be a bit overwhelmed,” he stated later. “I advised them, I want I didn’t wish to win as badly as badly as I do. I feel it will make the mornings simpler.”
Scheffler doesn’t have Woods’ skillset nor his Terminator qualities. He has a model of shotmaking and relentlessness and attraction all of his personal — a model we must always really feel comparatively privileged to witness. And because it seems, his model may not be all that totally different. (“I hate taking pictures over par,” he stated Sunday with lethal seriousness. “I can’t let you know how a lot I hate taking pictures over par.”)
It will be silly to anticipate that Scheffler will replicate Tiger’s dominance within the sport, and it will be downright reckless to recommend he’ll seize anyplace close to Woods’ 15 main championships. However at Augusta Nationwide on Sunday, there was little doubt he has captured Tiger’s sense of dominance — and inevitability.
In the event you had been searching for proof, you didn’t must look a lot additional than the twelfth, the place Scheffler caught his strategy into probably the most harmful par-3 on the earth to pin-high and drain a inconsiderate two-putt par, the identical approach Woods has navigated the opening and its legendary winds 5 occasions in green-jacket pursuits previous.
The spectacular half got here earlier than the tee shot, although, when the group rose to their ft in a deafening ovation.
That doesn’t occur typically at Amen Nook.
Darren Riehl
SIX MINUTES BEFORE SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER toppled the golf world once more, a breeze whistled by means of the Augusta Nationwide clubhouse.
The constructing had emptied throughout event play, however the power picked up once more shortly within the seconds previous the largest second of the week. Lots of the inexperienced jackets had hustled again shortly, desirous to discover a perch on the patio with a vantage level into the colossus surrounding the 18th inexperienced. Many extra golf movers and shakers frolicked within the shadows of the enormous oak, angling for yet one more glad-hand earlier than the solar set on Augusta Nationwide.
Contained in the clubhouse, a blast of cool air cascaded from the Champions Locker Room and down the steps. After a number of loud steps, a voice broke the quiet.
“Feeling okay?” the voice stated.
“Yeah,” one other extra acquainted voice replied somberly.
It was Jon Rahm, the reigning event champion, for a short time longer, anyway. He was getting ready for his remaining responsibility as 2023 Masters champion, which might be to crown the 2024 Masters champion by slipping the inexperienced jacket onto the winner’s shoulders. Earlier than Scheffler absolutely arrived, Rahm was the dominant ball striker of this period. However the pained look on the Spaniard’s face indicated he, too, appeared resigned to the reality: Any alternative Rahm has to put on the jacket once more entails beating the man strolling up the 18th fairway — and proper now, there’s not a golfer alive who can do this.
Rahm exited by means of the clubhouse’s entrance door, zipping previous a line of safety and shaking the palms of the few straggling inexperienced jackets. The gang hardly seen him. Their consideration was ahead, to the amphitheater on 18, the place the brand new champion was about to be topped.
Scheffler dazzled once more on the 18th, chipping on and one-putting for his second and most consequential Masters victory. After four-putting on the 72nd in 2022 to his personal chagrin, this time round Scheffler didn’t even take away his hat on the stroll up the 18th fairway. He had wished to remain within the second.
When Tiger poured in his personal world-toppling putt in 1997, for the most important margin of victory in event historical past, he was so deep within the zone that he had hardly seen the second’s gravity till the ball had dropped into the underside of the cup. So few of even the best golfers understand how that feels. On Sunday, Scheffler was one in every of them.
The emotion escaped quietly from Scheffler as his three-foot par putt disappeared, nowhere close to the Woodsian uppercut of ’97. Reasonably, with the complete consideration of Augusta Nationwide centered on him, he provided triumph of a extra genteel Scottie-style — wrapping caddie Ted Scott in a bear hug earlier than a fist pump emerged.
It was a signature second. A pronouncement. A quiet however very confident whats up, world.
Again within the clubhouse, a pair of velvet-gloved Augusta Nationwide officers emerged from the quiet flanked by a safety element and holding the Masters Trophy.
The older man on the head of the safety procession glimpsed on the huddled plenty on 18 and stopped himself. This remaining custom, the trophy ceremony, is probably the most delicate piece of the Masters. In every week during which all of the little issues signify large issues, the dinner-plate-sized, 900-piece-silver trophy is probably probably the most vital.
The person seemed on the trophy, at each pairs of velvet gloves, and on the golf course. He paused for a protracted beat, absorbing the power and historical past hanging within the air. Then he stated three phrases that felt apt after yet one more virtuoso Scheffler efficiency.
“Are you prepared?”
