AUGUSTA, Ga. — Scottie Scheffler doesn’t expect he’ll have to leave the Masters early on Sunday.
But he has a plan ready if he does.
Scheffler fist-pumped his way through Augusta National’s back nine on Saturday, pouring in an eagle putt at 13 and a birdie putt at 15 and another birdie putt at 18 to finish off a one-under 71. That gave him a one-shot lead heading to Sunday, where he’ll go off alongside Collin Morikawa in the final pairing.
Two years ago Scheffler held the 54-hole lead at the Masters, too. But when he woke up that Sunday morning the typically stoic Scheffler was overwhelmed with emotion.
“I cried like a baby,” he said later. “I was so stressed out. I didn’t know what to do. I was sitting there telling [his wife] Meredith, ‘I don’t think I’m ready for this. I’m not ready, I don’t feel like I’m ready for this kind of stuff.’ And I just felt overwhelmed.”
That’s where Meredith stepped up with words of comfort.
“She told me, ‘Who are you to say that you are not ready? Who am I to say that I know what’s best for my life?'”
When Scheffler ultimately cruised to victory at that Masters, he credited her calming influence. Now? He’s in position to do it again. But this week’s rental house looks different. Meredith, nearing full-term pregnancy, is at home preparing for the arrival of their first child. Scheffler invited a few buddies to keep him company instead.
“I didn’t want to be alone at the house, so I recruited a few of my friends to come stay with me that were in town,” he said.
Scheffler is a couple months shy of his 28th birthday but says his friend group is going through life changes alongside him. Part of the reason there was empty space in the rental house is because Sam Burns — also a soon-to-be father — missed the cut.
“We have a small group together at home with our wives,” he said. “You know, they got permission to come here this week. Some of them also had babies recently, so it’s nice to be able to get permission to come hang.”
Scheffler’s not accustomed to making breakfast, he said — though he pulled off eggs and toast on Saturday — and he’s still getting used to solo life on the road. But his focus is on what would happen should Meredith go into labor. While they don’t expect it, given she hasn’t shown early signs, Scheffler said they have a plan should that call come.
“Yeah, I definitely have a way to get home pretty quickly,” he said. “We have somebody here that has access to their cell phone [here he turned to the Augusta National member moderating the press conference] if that’s alright.
“And, yes, I’ll be available to go home then whenever I need to.”
Does Scheffler think she’d really call?
“She better call,” he said.
The Schefflers’ Baby Watch echoes another from a quarter-century ago. Phil Mickelson played the final round of the 1999 U.S. Open at Pinehurst with a beeper on hand, ready to fly to his wife Amy’s side. He held a one-stroke lead with three holes to play before ultimately coming in second to Payne Stewart.
“This is a disappointing day,” Mickelson, then 29, said at the time. “But in the next couple of days we’re expecting our first child, so that evens it out. I’m pretty excited about that.”
Who wins the Masters on Sunday? Our staff makes their picks
Scheffler joked that their baby prep hinges on a post-Masters birth, anyway.
“Maybe I should be more concerned. I don’t really know,” he said. “People have asked us how our preparation is going for the baby. I feel like we are a little underprepared. The nursery is not quite ready and we’ve had some issues at our house the last few weeks. I think that’s the exciting part. I think we are definitely underprepared to be parents.”
Back to Scheffler’s plan to win the Masters, then. He says he’ll spend Sunday morning hanging with friends. He’ll call Meredith. And he added that he doesn’t expect the same type of emotional morning he experienced in 2022. After all, that Masters win was the culmination of a meteoric rise from zero-time PGA Tour winner to World No. 1 in a matter of months.
“I think a lot of that emotion from Sunday morning a few years ago was more about just how quickly our life was changing and it was more of, are we ready for this type of thing,” he said. “Yeah, that’s when Mer gave me that nice speech and here we are.”
As for this time around?
“Now I think we have settled more into where our lives are at, and right now the most exciting thing is not winning the Masters, it’s a baby coming pretty soon. Things are a lot different now, and I feel like we’ve both matured.”
On Sunday Scheffler will hunt a career-changing win. Then he’ll plan to head home, where a life-changing event awaits.
