AUGUSTA, Ga. — It was a bizarre finish to a brilliant four days. Luckily for Scottie Scheffler, he was able to laugh about it. That’s the luxury five-shot leads provide.
Scheffler, the newest Masters champion, shot weekend rounds of 71 at Augusta National Golf Club and led the tournament by five with one hole remaining on Sunday evening. After he found the green with his approach on 18, he was greeted warmly by the patrons as he walked up toward the green. It was all but a formality that Scheffler was going to win the golf tournament.
Scheffler’s birdie putt was 41 feet downhill. He rolled it past the hole and had just five feet remaining for par. Cameron Smith finished up, clearing the stage for Scheffler.
One par putt to cap off the day — and he missed. It just barely touched the left edge. No big deal, right?
“That’s OK,” Jim Nantz said on the CBS telecast. “Still got a few to play with.”
OK, two feet for bogey. But then he missed again. This time he lipped it out on the right side. Scheffler put his hand to his mouth.
“OK, we haven’t seen any of this [before],” Nantz said. “This is just that the emotion overtook him.”
Scheffler took his time and marked his ball. Caddie Ted Scott walked over and gave him a few words of encouragement. The cameras panned to Scheffler’s wife, Meredith, who was smiling. No one was worried, yet.
“Come on folks,” Nantz said, his voice rising. “Lift him on your shoulders.”
“Scottie! Scottie! Scottie!” the gallery started to chant, only to quiet down quickly when Scheffler stood over his next putt. This time, from three feet, he made it.
It was your typical four-putt double-bogey 6 finish to win the Masters by three.
“Scheffler outlasts them all!” Nantz yelled when Scheffler drained the putt. The Masters champ reached down and picked up his ball. When the cameras caught his face, he was all smiles, almost laughing. Then he hugged Scott and, moments later, Meredith. The celebration was underway.
“I tried to keep my head down and just keep doing what I was doing because I didn’t want to break my concentration,” Scheffler said afterwards. “The minute I did was on 18 green when I finally got on there and I had a five-shot lead and was like, alright, now I can enjoy this. And you saw the results of that.” [Laughs]
