Scottie Scheffler dominates, in a class by himself after 2024 Masters win (2024)

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Scottie Scheffler took a page from golf’s greatest icons on Sunday, and left Augusta National leaving little doubt that he has everything it takes to join them one day.

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The 27-year-old Texan put on a master class of ball-striking while managing the golf course and major championship nerves to win the 88th Masters Tournament.

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“It’s been a long week, a grind of a week,” Scheffler said in his winner’s press conference. “The golf course was so challenging, and to be sitting here wearing this jacket again and getting to take it home is extremely special.”

Scheffler shot a final round four-under 68 to reach 11-under par and win by four strokes over Ludvig Aberg (-7). It’s the world No. 1’s second green jacket and second major championship, and a performance that proves, even in a fractured golf landscape, that he stands alone atop the golf world.

Tommy Fleetwood, Max Homa, and Collin Morikawa tied for fourth, seven shots back, at four-under.

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Scheffler and wife Meredith are expecting their first child at any moment, and the golfer said Saturday night he was prepared to leave the tournament on Sunday if he received the call from his wife. Thankfully, for all involved, that call didn’t come.

“I’m coming home. I’ll be home as quick as I can,” Scheffler said in a televised message to his wife from Butler Cabin during the green jacket ceremony. “I love you and I’m coming home.”

This year’s Masters treated golf fans to everything Augusta National has to offer. The week began with the course at its most beautiful after a wonderful early spring growing season. Then came two days of nearly impossible blustery conditions once the tournament began. That was followed by a sun-baked Saturday that showed what a fiery Augusta is capable of inflicting on golfers. On Sunday, players saw familiar championship pin placements and somewhat softer conditions that gave them a fighting chance.

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That is, until they ran into Scheffler.

“We put a lot of pieces of the puzzle together this week,” Morikawa said. “But after watching Scottie this week, I (now) know what to do if I really want to close this gap on what he’s doing and how impressive he’s playing.”

As his nearest competitors fell victim to either Augusta National’s risk-reward nature, or the course’s intimidating aura, Scheffler seemed to summon Ben Hogan and borrow from Tiger Woods as he expertly navigated the infamous Amen Corner.

With two of his closest challengers finding water left of the green with their approach shots to the treacherous par-4 11th hole, Scheffler played a conservative shot, missing the right but eliminating any risk of total calamity.

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Fellow Texan Ben Hogan once said, “If you ever see me on the 11th green in two, you’ll know I missed my second shot.”

Over time, and after some design tweaks to the hole, strategies have tended toward a more aggressive philosophy but Scheffler wasn’t planning to risk it, not with the his challengers imploding around him. It would be Scheffler’s only back-nine Sunday bogey but one that guaranteed his lead would be safe as he left the green.

One hole later, at the most famous par-3 in golf, Scheffler borrowed a target over the front bunker from Tiger Woods in 2019 to find the centre of the green, leaving a lengthy but routine two-putt. In 2019, Tiger took control of the tournament at the beautiful Golden Bell when Francesco Molinari, Brooks Koepka and Ian Poulter found water. This year, Scheffler took control there after Homa air-mailed the putting surface and made double bogey.

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“It’s a difficult golf course to close out a win on,” Scheffler said. “You can’t play overly defensive. Like 12 is a good example of a hole where if you play overly defensive, like where the pin is today, you’re trying to hit right over that bunker, right in the middle of the green.

“You can’t just sit up there and play overly defensive. You have to play to the correct spot and hit really good golf shots. I did that to the best of my abilities today.”

In the end, it was a stress-free walk down the 18th fairway with a four-shot lead, and a tap-in par to make history, with the story of the day already written.

Scheffler’s golf story is a work in progress, but according to the golfer, his life’s story is secure.

While a competitor such as Bryson DeChambeau is known as a high-energy, high-content oddball, and Sunday challenger Homa has a reputation as a social media savvy man-of-the-moment, defining Scheffler is more difficult.

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On the surface, his personality seems fit best for backyard barbecues and breezy conversations about what you’ve been streaming lately, meaning there is little doubt he will transition smoothly into dad life. Despite the suburban dad persona Scheffler is not a man without intense passions, but his are spiritual in nature, and several times throughout the week he found himslef choking while up speaking about his faith.

“I believe that today’s plans were already laid out many years ago, and I could do nothing to mess up those plans. I have been given a gift of this talent, and I use it for God’s glory. That’s pretty much it,” Scheffler said.

Scheffler is far from alone in golf, or sports, as someone who puts his spirituality at the front of his life, but it’s a part of an athlete that more often than not doesn’t make it into the story. Scheffler was determined this week to make sure that didn’t happen, saying his faith is the No. 1 thing that defines him, not his golf.

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“Winning this golf tournament does not change my identity,” he said. “My identity is secure, and I cannot, cannot emphasize that enough.”

As for the golf, the late, great golf writer Dan Jenkins first wrote that the Masters doesn’t start until the back nine on Sunday. That famous turn of phrase was as true as ever at this year’s tournament, when at 4:30 p.m. there was a four-way tie for the lead between Scheffler, Morikawa, Homa and Aberg at six-under par as the final groups finished up their front nine.

An hour later, Scheffler held a three-shot lead and would never look back.

For Scheffler’s playing partner Morikawa, disaster first came at the par-4 ninth hole where the two-time major winner found sand with his approach shot from the pine straw and then failed to get out of the bunker, making double bogey. Two holes later, the dagger came when Morikawa found water at the 11th hole, becoming yet another casualty of Amen Corner.

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Homa’s hopes also died at Augusta’s most famous stretch, or at least they got temporarily lost in the bushes. After a frantic search for his ball at the beautifully terrifying par-3, Homa took an unplayable lie and made a double bogey to drop to five-under, three shots back of Scheffler.

Playing with Homa was Aberg, the unflappable Swede who was playing U.S. college golf one year ago. Like Morikawa, Aberg fell off the pace by finding water at the 11th hole and making a double bogey. The 24-year-old Aberg was the only player to re-mount something of a challenge, with back-to-back birdies at 13 and 14.

But it was Scheffler’s day and is increasingly looking like Scheffler’s era, as the World No. 1 has two green jackets in three years and last month became the first player in history to win back-to-back Players Championships.

Scheffler’s tee-to-green statistics during this stretch amazingly rival prime Woods’ numbers, and now that the ball-striking maestro with the fancy footwork has fixed a crooked putting stroke, he truly stands alone atop the world of golf.

“I will go home, soak in this victory tonight. Will definitely enjoy the birth of my first child,” he said. “My priorities will change here very soon. My son or daughter will now be the main priority, along with my wife.

“But I still love competing. I don’t plan on taking my eye off the ball anytime soon, that’s for sure.”

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