Scheffler procession takes the sting out of Masters Sunday
It was a Masters weekend that never set fire as Scheffler smothers the competition.
To take a horse racing analogy, in a big field with a short-priced favourite, there is every chance of an upset in the final furlong. Many a big name has fallen at the last, struggled up the hill, or been reeled back by an unlikely warrior bounding home to snag victory at the finish line.
Heading into the 2024 Masters, Scottie Scheffler was the short-priced favourite at a measly 4/1, odds almost embarrassingly low to tip with any semblance of sincerity.
From late on Thursday through to the final hurdles of the back nine Sunday evening, Scheffler was very much the pedigree predator that, in his absolute prime, strode to victory at a pace that he probably could have done another lap of the circuit. He kept his powder dry in the early outings, asserting his raw class whilst keeping the competitors at an arm’s length, but didn’t truly turn the screw until the 18th flag was in sight. Glancing around at the Homas, the Åbergs and Morikawas that were pulling and dragging for places at -5 and -6, he cracked the whip and steered for home like any of Cheltenham’s finest to a four hole win on -11. The favourite stamped his authority, the chasing pack merely making up the numbers. He turned and welcomed them home with barely a sweat on his brow, looking every bit the behemoth in victory. Come 10.30pm GMT you could hear the collective uninstalling of the Masters app across the world.
Still, golf probably has more questions than the answers Scheffler had for Augusta National’s equations heading into the rest of the season.
Rory McIlroy naturally took up much of the pre-tournament real estate on this side of the pond. As faith depleted after last year’s disaster, this year’s turnout was arguably more saddening as an invested onlooker—still there, somewhere deep down the leaderboard, never threatening, but still a participant like some other former winners hacking up the August fairways. Eventually even the television cameras gave up on him.
But unlike the likes of Jon Rahm and Danny Willett, a green jacket still evades McIlroy. Every year we’ll flirt with his chances and then accept the inevitable disappointment, which with a force like Scheffler in the running makes it all the more likely every year. Once the voice of the voiceless in the face of LIV invasion, McIlroy feels like a defeated leader on the battlefield, swinging away whilst the utmost victory escapes his desperate grasp.
Ludvig Åberg was a popular follow on his Masters debut, showing less of the fear and anxiety that has enveloped many of the more experienced heads on the tour. It likely won’t be his last foray into our Sunday screen time, as he looks to capitalize on his recent form and exciting potential.
Now a two-time Masters winner, we could as fans latch onto Scheffler’s grand slam efforts as the PGA Championship wheels around in Valhalla next month. It would take an immense effort from someone to deny the 27-year-old from going back-to-back on major turf. He’s yet to win any of the other three majors but you suspect, unless he does a complete disappearing act, this year will be closer to that of Brooks Koepka’s 2018-2019 spell when he blitzed the PGA and U.S. Opens.
Speaking of Koepka, who not long ago looked like dominating with a Scheffler-like iron fist, he has faded away having annexed himself to the land of 54 holes. Having come runner-up in last year’s Masters and followed that up with that a PGA win in Oak Hill, he has plummeted down the leaderboards of the majors and didn’t land a jab all weekend.
His recent LIV-leaning turncoat Jon Rahn was nowhere near defending his green jacket, in a sign of things to come that players not competing regularly enough across the full 64 holes may have too much rust in the shoulders to mount a serviceable challenge—with three major wins on the bounce for the unlikely good guys on the PGA Tour.
And it’s because of that, despite Scheffler’s supreme dominance, golf has rarely felt at such a low ebb. This year we likely said goodbye to Tiger Woods in the Augusta plains for the last time in any meaningful way, one last roll of the dice as his bones cracked and creaked around the course.
Bryson DeChambeau provided one of the more bizarre moments of the weekend when he pulled up a signpost that was in his way, before falling off the chasing pack with a tame Day 4, likewise did Collin Morikawa who looked like a worthy competitor to Scheffler early Sunday morning. A double-bogey on the ninth hole, quickly followed by another on 11, meant his race was run.
Looking down the leaderboard, there is not a whole lot to get excited about heading into the rest of this year’s majors. With LIV’s shenanigans still dividing the pack and putting a large hole in the PGA tour lineups, and being played in front of a crowd a mid-level Twitch streamer would snicker at, you’d have to wonder what golf can do to turn it around. Some sort of unity needs to be formed to get all the best players back under one umbrella. But regardless of who the tour can trot out to make our majors Sunday viewing a little bit more interesting, there’s no touching Scottie Scheffler’s stallion pedigree right now.