Scottie Scheffler secured his second Masters title with an imperious four-shot win last night over future Swedish superstar Ludvig Aberg. The world No.1 broke free of the field on the final day to confirm his status as the best player in the world. And only a call from his heavily pregnant wife Meredith back home in Texas could have stopped the 2022 champion slipping into his second Green Jacket.
Already the cleanest iron player in the game, his work with English putting guru Phil Kenyon since the Ryder Cup has made him into the complete player. He carded seven birdies in his nerveless closing round to finish on 11-under par for the week.
Scheffler has now won three times in his last four starts and nine times on the PGA Tour since his breakthrough win at the WM Phoenix Open in February 2022.
Comparisons with Tiger Woods are premature. But there were certainly parallels with the 15-time Major winner yesterday as the world No.1 ground out his latest victory while his competitors crumbled under the pressure. It certainly happened for Woods’ fifth fairytale win here in 2019. Scheffler joins his fellow American as the only player to win the Masters ranked world No.1 more than once.
He is the first player to win two Masters in three years since Bubba Watson in 2012 and 2014. And Horton Smith in the 1930s, who needed three attempts, has won his second title here in fewer than Scheffler’s five appearances here. Arnold Palmer needed six.
Aberg was bidding to make his own history as the first debutant to win here since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 in his first ever Major appearance. The Swede, who played in the Ryder Cup only three months after turning pro last June, recovered from a double bogey on 11 to shoot a 69 and finish as runner-up. The world No.9, 24, is destined to win future Majors and soon challenge Scheffler,27, at the top of the rankings.
The American had started the final round a stroke ahead of his Ryder Cup team-mate Collin Morikawa. But when he made his second bogey of the day on the seventh, he slipped into a three-way tie for the lead with his fellow American and Aberg. Homa had gone 33 holes without a birdie until picking up a shot on the second. And when the world No.11 birdied No.8, he became part of a brief four-way logjam at the top of the leaderboard.
Tradition has it that the Masters is only ever decided on the final nine on Sunday. But the crucial holes at this 88th edition came around the turn. On the ninth hole, Scheffler’s launched his drive 358 yards and then caressed a wedge from 89 yards to inches from the hole for a tap-in birdie.
Morikawa needed two shots to get out of a greenside bunker for a double bogey and a three-shot swing in the final group. Scheffler made a third consecutive birdie on No.10 to open up a two-shot lead on the field.
