Scottie Scheffler’s second Masters victory has massive implications for the game.
Darren Riehl
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Six hours earlier than Scottie Scheffler toppled the golf world once more, a shockwave rippled by the Augusta National clubhouse.
The remaining celebration 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 title was Tiger Woods, and after an extended week, his Masters was over.
Tiger, you could have heard, is a Masters legend. One of perhaps three mononymous figures in membership historical past, the others being Arnie and Jack. And although he had thrashed and clawed towards the nice inexperienced tidal wave that’s Augusta National 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 finish is perhaps nearing for Tiger, who’s 48 and hampered by years of damage. But Tiger is an Augusta National legend, and at a membership that mythologizes its historical past and affluence and affect, changing into a legend is difficult. In truth, within the 27 years since Woods introduced arrival with a 12-shot Masters win, no one has come shut. Which meant that even now, after a tough Masters end, Tiger Woods was nonetheless highly effective sufficient to halt Augusta National.
A hush fell over the clubhouse as he hustled off the 18th inexperienced. By the time he disappeared in a sweat-stained pink shirt, he had earned the realm’s undivided consideration. The hush continued lengthy after he was gone.
It will for the remainder of his life.
Darren Riehl
AN HOUR AFTER TIGER DISAPPEARED, a special vitality rippled by Augusta National. 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 fact that anybody with a pair of eyes might let you know heading into Augusta was that Scottie Scheffler was the most effective participant on this planet, interval. Not the most effective participant proper now. Not the most effective over the previous few weeks or months. But the most effective in a approach so head-and-shoulders above his rivals that even the fellows attempting 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 moment 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 include his shock.
“Birdie?!” he stated.
But even when Scottie had earned a fame for being annoyingly good at golf, he hadn’t earned a fame for being transcendent. That sort of excellent belonged to the mononymous, the sort who might trigger a leaderboard to wilt beneath the burden of their momentum and who might topple a fantastic golf course with sheer drive of will. The form who might halt Augusta National.
That’s what Tiger would do. That’s what the Masters calls for. And Scottie? Well, 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 fact is that golf has seen loads of annoyingly good gamers over time — gamers who might seize the World No. 1 rating and maintain it for months at a time — however it hasn’t seen a transcendent expertise in for much longer than that. The Masters is the right instance of why. It is a check of a golfer’s mettle as a lot as it’s considered one of his would possibly. Winning right here belongs to not the most effective hitters however to the most effective gamers, those who can keep away from the harmful spots and make the harmful putts and execute the harmful photographs with out collapsing beneath the burden of the stress.
Scheffler arrived on Sunday together with his solutions to these questions nonetheless hanging within the air. He’d performed effectively, actually effectively, over the primary few days. But he hadn’t blown away Augusta National, and his one-shot 54-hole lead appeared to be teetering. He’d received right here already, which was an indication that he was adequate to be nice. But if he have been really transcendent, he might present as much as Augusta National because the head-and-shoulders betting favourite and win anyway. He might flip his waltz round Augusta National 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 National’s consideration once more.
He had all however received the match on the twelfth inexperienced, watching together with his personal eyes as every of his three leaderboard operating mates confirmed themselves the door at Amen Corner. Scheffler, alternatively, performed the stretch just about flawlessly, floating cautious approaches into 11, 12 and 13 and making clutch putts on every.
The crowd ready to the aspect of the fifteenth gap shuddered when the leaderboard up to date to point out that Scottie, already holding a three-shot lead, had jarred one other birdie on the 14th.
“You’re kidding me,” one patron stated.
“Again?” stated one other.
Scheffler appeared 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 instances within the final a number of a long time. Each time the star was Tiger Woods.
But Scottie didn’t have Tiger’s killer intuition. He didn’t have Tiger’s will to win. He didn’t have Tiger’s skill to halt Augusta National.
He had Scottie’s.
“I was sitting around with my buddies this morning, I was a bit overwhelmed,” he stated later. “I told them, I wish I didn’t want to win as badly as badly as I do. I think it would make the mornings easier.”
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 should always really feel comparatively privileged to witness. And because it seems, his model may not be all that totally different. (“I hate shooting over par,” he stated Sunday with lethal seriousness. “I can’t tell you how much I hate shooting over par.”)
It could be silly to anticipate that Scheffler will replicate Tiger’s dominance within the sport, and it might be downright reckless to recommend he’ll seize anyplace close to Woods’ 15 main championships. But at Augusta National on Sunday, there was little doubt he has captured Tiger’s sense of dominance — and inevitability.
If you have been in search of proof, you didn’t have to look a lot additional than the twelfth, the place Scheffler caught his method into essentially the most harmful par-3 on this planet to pin-high and drain a inconsiderate two-putt par, the identical approach Woods has navigated the opening and its legendary winds 5 instances in green-jacket pursuits previous.
The spectacular half got here earlier than the tee shot, although, when the group rose to their toes in a deafening ovation.
That doesn’t occur typically at Amen Corner.
Darren Riehl
SIX MINUTES BEFORE SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER toppled the golf world once more, a breeze whistled by the Augusta National clubhouse.
The constructing had emptied throughout match play, however the vitality picked up once more shortly within the seconds previous the largest moment of the week. Many 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 large oak, angling for yet one more glad-hand earlier than the solar set on Augusta National.
Inside 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 ok?” the voice stated.
“Yeah,” one other extra acquainted voice replied somberly.
It was Jon Rahm, the reigning match champion, for a short time longer, anyway. He was making ready for his remaining obligation as 2023 Masters champion, which might be to crown the 2024 Masters champion by slipping the inexperienced jacket onto the winner’s shoulders. Before Scheffler absolutely arrived, Rahm was the dominant ball striker of this period. But 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 try this.
Rahm exited by the clubhouse’s entrance door, zipping previous a line of safety and shaking the palms of the few straggling inexperienced jackets. The crowd 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 needed to remain within the moment.
When Tiger poured in his personal world-toppling putt in 1997, for the most important margin of victory in match historical past, he was so deep within the zone that he had hardly seen the moment’s gravity till the ball had dropped into the underside of the cup. So few of even the best golfers know the way that feels. On Sunday, Scheffler was considered one of them.
The emotion escaped quietly from Scheffler as his three-foot par putt disappeared, nowhere close to the Woodsian uppercut of ’97. Rather, with the total consideration of Augusta National targeted 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 moment. A pronouncement. A quiet however very confident good day, world.
Back within the clubhouse, a pair of velvet-gloved Augusta National 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 lots on 18 and stopped himself. This remaining custom, the trophy ceremony, is essentially the most delicate piece of the Masters. In every week wherein all of the little issues signify massive issues, the dinner-plate-sized, 900-piece-silver trophy is probably essentially the most vital.
The man seemed on the trophy, at each pairs of velvet gloves, and on the golf course. He paused for an extended beat, absorbing the vitality and historical past hanging within the air. Then he stated three phrases that felt apt after one more virtuoso Scheffler efficiency.
“Are you ready?”
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