Scottie Scheffler completed his first competitive round at the Masters on a rain-delayed Thursday and moments later had an emotional response that was quintessential Scottie Scheffler.
Quite frankly, he was, well, ticked off.
Which is exactly the frame of mind you’d expect from a talented 24-year-old golfer who finished in fourth at the PGA Championship and came to Augusta National this week not to check off something at the top of his bucket list, but to win.
At least, in his mind. He’ll get a chance to make amends on Friday, when he tees off at 1:57 p.m. ET. He won’t finish the second round until Saturday.
“I got around OK,” Scheffler said of Thursday’s play. “I hit it pretty poorly, so 1-under wasn’t the worst score.”
Hardly.
Not when you consider the historic venue with its beguiling greens and hilly terrain. Nor is a 71 bad when you consider the first-round leader, Englishman Paul Casey, scored an unsightly 81 on the first day and missed the cut in 2019 but Scheffler completed his first competitive round at the Masters on a rain-delayed Thursday and moments later had an emotional response that was quintessential Scheffler.
Quite frankly, he was, well, ticked off.
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Which is exactly the frame of mind you’d expect from a talented 24-year-old golfer who finished in fourth at the PGA Championship and came to Augusta National this week not to check off something at the top of his bucket list, but to win.
At least, in his mind.
“I got around OK,” Scheffler said. “I hit it pretty poorly, so 1-under wasn’t the worst score.”
Hardly.
Not when you consider the historic venue with its beguiling greens and hilly terrain. Nor is a 71 bad when you consider the first-round leader, Englishman Paul Casey, scored an unsightly 81 on the first day and missed the cut in 2019 but birdied the first three holes and shot a masterful 65 on Thursday.
One day you eat the monster, the next day it devours you.
The former Texas All-American didn’t come close to putting together a complete round. Oh, he had his share of highlights, but he walked off the course after a 1-under 71 score that left him six shots off the lead.
“I got off to a really good start,” he said. “After that, I kind of lost my swing for a little bit. Didn’t play the par-5 holes well.”
He birdied three of his first six holes but had just one more birdie the rest of the day, once pulling his tee shot into the winds and then ferociously swinging his club in disgust. His putting betrayed him as well, all things considered. He blamed himself for not scoring better on the par-5’s, carding a cumulative 1-under there.
Scheffler was briefly near the top of the Masters leaderboard among the early golfers when he went off on No. 10 in the split-tee start to salvage as much daylight as possible.
But a downpour accompanied by severe lightning delayed the round by two hours and 47 minutes and may have done nothing to alleviate any anxiety about playing in just his fifth major ever.
“I sat on the patio for an hour of it, and then we went to, I can’t remember what room it was,” Scheffler said. “We sat on another patio out there. But the AC was too much to go inside. I was soaking wet. I needed to warm up outside.”
His game, one of the best on the PGA Tour already with considerable length and solid short game, warmed up quickly. He birdied the treacherous No. 12 — his third hole of the day — that sunk so many’s hopes a year ago, but he was focusing more on how many shots he left on the course.
How many?
“A lot,” he said.
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