Photos courtesy of Augusta National Golf Club

You couldn’t tell it from Scottie Scheffler’s easy-going personality and walk, but a lot was weighing on the pretournament favorite’s mind once he arrived at Augusta National Golf Club for the 2024 Masters Tournament.

Such as:

Would there be an early arrival of his and his wife Meredith’s first child? If so, Scheffler said he would leave the tournament immediately and return home to Texas. There was also the fact that Meredith, his biggest supporter and confidant, wasn’t in Augusta to support him for the first time since he made his Augusta National debut in 2020.

Would there be a flareup of the neck problem that reared its head a month earlier at THE PLAYERS Championship?

And would his new-found putting prowess continue? After changing to a mallet-headed putter five weeks before the Masters, Scheffler had cured the putting woes that cost him some tournament titles in the late 2023 and early 2024 seasons. But the new putter had never been tested on slick, undulating greens like those at Augusta National.

As it turned out, the Scheffler baby – a boy they named Bennett — didn’t arrive until May 8, exactly a month after the Monday Masters practice round. The neck problem, however, was a real concern before the final round but was remedied just before he teed off. And his putting? He rolled his putts beautifully on the greens all week with his mallet putter.

That left Scheffler to focus on his ball striking, of which no one in today’s game is more proficient. That’s why the talk before the tournament was this: could anyone stop Scheffler, the red-hot World No. 1 player, from winning his second Green Jacket in three years? The answer was an emphatic no.

Scheffler, who came into the week with victories in two of his previous three starts (and a runner-up finish in the other) was not to be denied.

During a week at Augusta National that included a solar eclipse (during the Monday practice round) and winds gusting up to 40 mph on Friday that sent scores soaring, Scheffler finished at 11-under 277 to win by four shots. On that windy Friday, Scheffler shot 1-under-par 71 while the field averaged 75.0785. The golfer’s play, as Masters Chairman Fred Ridley commented afterward, “was simply spectacular.” 

Scheffler finished in the top 20 in all the major statistical categories. He was third in putting in the field with 76, tied for seventh in greens hit in regulation (44 of 72), 13th in driving distance (305.7 yards) and tied for 18th in driving accuracy (44 of 56 fairways hit). He was also second in the field in birdies with 20.  Scheffler had tied for 10th place in his Masters defense in 2023 but was back on top again in 2024.

“I think whenever you’re able to do it again, I think it’s really special,” Scheffler said of his second Masters title. “I don’t know if validation is the right word for the first one, but doing something like that twice is very special. So, there’s definitely a good bit of satisfaction in accomplishing that.”

With Meredith resting comfortably in Texas and his putter cooperating, Scheffler’s biggest worry was his neck. He experienced pain from it the morning before the final round.

“The same little joint bugged me a touch [four weeks earlier], but fortunately we were able to get ahead of it this time before it completely locked up on me,” he said. Because some of the neck issues lingered when he got to the course for the final round, Scheffler had concerns about how he’d play at first.

“So as far as how I felt Sunday, my warm-up was very stressful because when the joint starts to lock up, everything around it also tightens, and so it happens very quickly,” he said. “I was sitting on the couch at home relaxing, and then all of a sudden, I could feel it. So, I got in the shower as quick as I could, got ready and went straight to my trainer. We started working on it pretty quickly, but it definitely was not anywhere near my normal warm-up. I was out late for my warm-up. I had to go back in and get taped back up to go back out and play, so the warm-up was a bit stressful, but I feel like my heart rate went down as we approached the tee time.”

Fortunately for Scheffler, his starting time for the final round wasn’t until 2:35 p.m. The golfer started the final round with a one-shot lead over Collin Morikawa, his Sunday playing partner. When it was over, Scheffler had closed with 68 and won by four over Masters rookie Ludvig Åberg of Sweden (69 in the final round). Morikawa faded to 74 and finished in a tie for third place with England’s Tommy Fleetwood (69) and Max Homa (73), five behind Scheffler.

Scheffler’s not much for talking about the past or the future — just the present. In the here and now, he likes to keep things simple on the golf course, which was noted by Rory McIlroy, who tied for 22nd place. 

“Nothing. Nothing. Not a lot of clutter,” McIlroy said when asked what he thinks is in Scheffler’s head when he is on the golf course. “The game feels pretty easy when you’re in stretches like this. That’s the hard thing whenever you’re not quite in form — you are searching and thinking about it so much. But when you are in form, you don’t think about it at all. So, it’s trying to find that balance.”

It’s easy to stay in the present when you’re as prepared as Scheffler when he arrives at a tournament. “I feel like I’m always trying to work on all aspects of my game, and I feel like when I walk out onto the first tee, I’m focused on my preparation,” Scheffler said. “When I step up there — and I always remind myself walking to the tee that I’m prepared for this — that I did everything I could in order to play well. If you see me at a tournament, there’s about a 99% chance that I checked all the boxes and I’m ready to play. So, when I step up there, I remember the results aren’t up to me and I’m going out there and compete.”

“I think discipline is a word that comes to mind,” said Ted Scott, Scheffler’s caddie since early 2022, a few weeks before that year’s Masters. Scott, who was on the bag when Bubba Watson won his two Masters (2012, 2014) and now his four Masters titles, believes Scheffler is golf’s version of Superman, with a Green Jacket instead of a cape over his shoulders.

“What is he not good at? I don’t know,” Scott said. “I think his superpower is that super powerful people are good at everything, and he seems to be good at everything. He doesn’t really have a weakness.” With Scheffler leading the way, the 2024 Masters might have signaled a changing of the guard in the tournament.

While the 27-year-old Scheffler was winning his second Green Jacket, 48-year-old Tiger Woods, a five-time winner at Augusta National, finished last in the field among the 60 who made the cut, and many saw that as a figurative passing of the golf baton. Scheffler (66-72-71-68) beat Woods (73-72-82-77) by 27 shots. Phil Mickelson, a four-time Masters champion who was 53 years old, shot 73-75-74-74, and was 19 shots behind Scheffler. It isn’t just Scheffler who is among the young, new guard. While Åberg was just 24, Morikawa was 27, the same age as Scheffler, Fleetwood and Homa were both 33.

“We’ve all grown up with Tiger and Phil kind of being the front runners more than anybody else in the contenders,” fellow Masters participant Luke List said. “Now it seems like Scottie has separated himself a little bit. Rory [McIlroy] had his time.”

Indeed, Scheffler continued to separate himself from the rest of the PGA Tour players the week following the Masters. Scheffler, though weary after a quick trip to Texas to celebrate his victory with Meredith, honored his commitment to play in the RBC Heritage (Meredith’s due date was still two weeks away) in Hilton Head Island, S.C. He shot 69-65-63-68 to finish at 19-under at the RBC Heritage to win by three shots.

In his pretournament news conference at the Heritage, Scheffler said, “I was on a radio show earlier and someone asked me if I thought about withdrawing and I said, ‘No, I committed to this tournament and I’m not showing up here just to walk around and play a little golf.’ I left my pregnant wife at home to come here and play in a golf tournament. I am here to play, and hopefully, play well. I’m not here just for fun.”

Scheffler became the first player to win the Masters and the Heritage back-to-back since Bernhard Langer did it in 1995. Afterward, Scheffler reiterated his pretournament mantra: “I didn’t show up here just to have some sort of ceremony [for winning the Masters] and have people tell me congratulations.”

The Masters victory was a springboard for one of the greatest seasons in pro golf. Scheffler’s seven PGA Tour wins, which included the Masters, THE PLAYERS Championship and Tour Championship, were the most in a year since Woods won nine times in 2000. Scheffler also won an Olympic gold medal. No one else won more than twice on the PGA Tour in 2024.

In his 19 PGA Tour starts, Scheffler won 43% of the time. Counting PGA Tour bonuses, he earned more than $62 million this past season. He closed out the 2024 season in December with a victory in Woods’ unofficial event, the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.

Of course, the inevitable comparisons with Woods in his prime were drawn after Scheffler’s fantastic year.  After he won the Hero World Challenge, Scheffler called any similarities to Woods “a bit silly. There’s really only one Tiger; that’s just kind of it. I’m trying to get the best out of myself and that’s really all I’m focused on. I’m not chasing records or chasing history or anything like that. I’m just trying to day-in-and-day-out continue to improve a little bit, just go out there, compete and have fun.” With his talent and motivation, he might one day challenge Jack Nicklaus’ record of six Masters titles. 

Scheffler has a lifetime invitation to the Masters by virtue of being a former champion and he’s not going anywhere. The expectation is that there should be more Green Jackets in his future.

“I love the feeling of a well-struck golf shot,” he said. “I love this game. I love going out and practicing by myself. I love playing golf, gambling at home with people, just messing around. The game of golf has been a huge part of my life for a long time, and Lord willing, it’ll be part of my life for a long time going forward. I don’t plan on taking my eye off the ball anytime soon.”

“It’s phenomenal,” List, who tied for 38th place in the Masters said of Scheffler’s play in 2024. “He’s probably just trying to bottle it and keep it going as long as possible. Without question, he will be a force for years to come.”

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Appears in the April 2025 issue of Augusta Magazine

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