Scottie Scheffler looked like a Masters champion even before he slipped into his green jacket, the model of calm as he methodically worked his way around the most stressful course in major championship golf.
Sunday morning was different. That turned out to be the toughest test he had all day.
“I cried like a baby this morning. I was so stressed out. I didn’t know what to do,” Scheffler said after winning his first major. “I was sitting there telling [wife] Meredith, ‘I don’t think I’m ready for this’ … and I just felt overwhelmed.”
And then he capped off his torrid two-month stretch with his grandest feat of all, leading the entire weekend and strolling to a 1-under 71 — with one lapse in concentration at the end when it didn’t matter — for a 3-shot victory over Rory McIlroy.
For a guy who had won three of his previous five tournaments, who reached No. 1 in the world, why suddenly be overcome with doubt?
And to think that 56 days ago, Scheffler was still trying to win his first PGA Tour title. Now he has won four of the past six he has played, the best stretch since Jason Day in the summer of 2015.
The Sunday theater, thrilling and tragic, belonged to everyone else. Scheffler overcame a nervy moment early in the round by chipping in for birdie. He delivered key putts to keep Cameron Smith at bay and never looked rattled, even as he was swatting at short putts at the end.
McIlroy was the runner-up. It was Smith who felt as though he let one get away. The Aussie was still in the game, 3 shots out of the lead, when he dumped his tee shot in Rae’s Creek on the par-3 12th hole for triple bogey, ending his hopes.
“Just a really bad swing at the wrong time,” Smith said.
Smith closed with a 73 and tied for third with Shane Lowry, who birdied the 18th for a 69.
Scheffler joined Ian Woosnam in 1991 as the only players to win a major — the Masters in both cases — in their debuts at No. 1 in the world.
Everyone should have seen this coming. He won the Phoenix Open in a playoff on Super Bowl Sunday. He followed that with a comeback win at Bay Hill to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He rose to No. 1 in the world by winning the Match Play two weeks ago in Texas.
And now this.
Scheffler finished at 10-under 278 and won $2.7 million from the $15 million prize fund. That brings his total to $8,872,200 over his past six starts. After being listed as a 40-1 long shot to win the Masters, Scheffler went off at 18-1 at Caesars Sportsbook. He began the fourth round as a -225 favorite.
photo courtesy of theguardian.com