Masters champion Scottie Scheffler receives his winner’s Green Jacket from 2023 titleist Jon Rahm at Augusta National Golf Club on Sunday. Image courtesy Augusta National.
By Rahul Banerji
World number one and hot favourite Scottie Scheffler swept to his second Masters Tournament title in three years by a comfortable margin at Augusta National Golf Club on Sunday.
The 2022 winner was never really threatened after starting with a one-shot advantage as Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg handled the pressure better than the rest to take a merited second place four strokes behind Scheffler.
Scheffler’s closing 4 under par 68 was only bettered on Sunday by young Korean Joohyung ‘Tom’ Kim who carded a flying 66 that lifted him to shared 30th place in the final standings.
With his ninth PGA Tour title, Scheffler (66-72-71-68) emulated Tiger Woods (2001) as the only winners of both the Masters and the Players Championship in the same year, and also became the fourth-youngest repeat champion at Augusta behind Nicklaus, Woods, and Severiano Ballesteros.
New role
He will also shortly become a father with his wife Meredith expecting their first child any day now.
“I can’t put into words what it means to win this tournament again,” Scheffler was quoted as saying.
“I really can’t put into words what it’s going to be like to be a father for the first time. I’m looking forward to getting home and celebrating with Meredith. It’s been a long week here without her but I’m just looking forward to getting home.
“I will definitely enjoy the birth of my first child but with that being said, I still love competing. My priorities will change here very soon.
“My son or daughter will now be the main priority, along with my wife, so golf will now be probably fourth in line. But I still love competing. I don’t plan on taking my eye off the ball anytime soon, that’s for sure.”
Aberg (73-69-70-69), Scheffler’s playing partner Collin Morikawa, Max Homa and England’s Tommy Fleetwood all came close but were unable to bridge the gap to the leader barring at the seventh hole.
Cruising away
Scheffler bogeyed the hole where Morikawa and Aberg picked up shots and with Homa getting birdie on hole eight there was for just that moment a four-way tie.
That ended minutes later when Scheffler birdied eight and from then on, the other three were reduced to a chase group.
Two further birdies – on nine and 10 –cemented the gap and Scheffler sealed the fate of the tournament at Amen Corner (holes 11, 12 and 13) where his bogey was outdone by double-bogeys from the other three.
After that, it was Scheffler’s event to lose and three birdies on the trot made sure that would not happen.
Behind him, Korea’s Byeong Hun An posted his best Masters finish with a tied 16th on Sunday but was also left regretting the fact that he missed out on an automatic return to Augusta National by a single stroke.
Missing out
The 32-year-old An signed off on his fifth appearance at the year’s opening major with a 3 over 75 that mixed five birdies, six bogeys and a double. The top-12 finishers and ties earn invitations back to next year’s Masters.
“First two days were great. Obviously, the weekend was a little disappointing. I feel like my ball striking was there, but putting let me down,” An said later.
“Yesterday I could have had six more birdies, a lot more pars … same today. It was very disappointing to finish this way. I’ve got to figure something out. It’s golf,” said An, who finished T33 in 2017 for his previous best result at Augusta National.
An though was the highest placed Asian finisher at the Masters, while 2021 champion Hideki Matsuyama was tied 38th with a closing 74 and Si Woo Kim signed off with a 70 in what was his eighth successive Masters appearance.
With Sungjae Im, who missed the halfway cut on Friday, being the fourth Korean in this year’s elite field, An believes it is a good indicator of the growing strength of Korean golf, and anticipates the day when a Korean player will don the winner’s Green Jacket.
“Yeah, there should be more (in the Masters). I mean, four is great, but I feel like there’re many great players that can play into this event.
“You definitely will see more in the future. There’re still a lot of guys playing on the PGA Tour who could have made it here. Four is a decent number, but hopefully we can get the win one day,” An said.
Birdie barrage
Past Panasonic Open India winner Joohyung Kim unleashed a birdie barrage as he finished in the middle of the pack following his 66.
“For me, I made the cut on the number. I didn’t really have a good moving day. I just came out here just trying to make it as stress-free as possible, and I did, and just got lucky with a good round there,” said the three-time tour winner.
Incidentally, all nine of Scheffler’s titles have come since the start of the 2021-22 season making him the first to win nine or more times on tour in the span of three seasons since Justin Thomas, won nine titles between 2016-17 and 2018-19.
The Masters win also broke a tie with 2022 champion Jon Rahm for the most wins since Scheffler joined the tour at the start of the 2019-20 season.
At the bottom of the leaderboard, 82-time winner and five-time Masters champion Tiger Woods finishes 60th and last with a career-high 72-hole total of 304 strokes.
Sunday’s round was also Tiger’;’s 100th at Augusta National, playing alongside talented amateur Neal Shipley who was tied for 53rd place while 2023 winner Jon Rahm was joint 46th.
Also read: Scheffler holds sole lead at Masters as Tiger Woods struggles
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