One week after ascending to No. 1 in the world, Scottie Scheffler is taking home his first career major championship title. Scheffler carded a final round score of a 1-under 71 to win the green jacket by a comfortable three-shot margin over Rory McIlroy.
He enjoyed a stroll up the No. 18 green knowing he was about to become the Masters champion.
The victory marks Scheffler’s fourth win in his last six starts. He was the only player in the field to finish under par in all four rounds of the tournament.
A chip-in for birdie on hole No. 3 got the ball rolling for Scheffler in the final round on Sunday and he never looked back.
Scheffler joins Jordan Speith (2015) and Ben Crenshaw (1984, 1995) as Texas Longhorns to win the Masters Tournament. He is the sixth Longhorn to win a major championship.
Scheffler — the picture of calm, cool and collected was anything — but in the hours leading to the final round at Augusta National Golf Club. Scheffler held a three-stroke lead heading into the final round, but had a lot of time to kill before his 2:50 p.m. ET tee time in the final group.
“Last night was pretty easy. I was tired. We went and got some food. I spilled my dinner in the car on the way home, and that was extraordinarily frustrating,” said Scheffler, noting that his wife, Meredith was still laughing about it in the back of the auditorium where her husband was conducting his winner’s press conference. “She thought it was the funniest thing ever; I didn’t think it was so funny at the time.”
This morning, Scheffler said, was a totally different story.
“I cried like a baby this morning. I was so stressed out. I didn’t know what to do. I was sitting there telling 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,’ ” Scheffler recounted. “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?’ And so what we talked about is that God is in control and that the Lord is leading me; and if today is my time, it’s my time. And if I shot 82 today, you know, somehow I was going to use it for His glory. Gosh, it was a long morning. It was long.”
Scheffler said it was the first time he’s ever responded emotionally.
“It’s definitely different with it being a lead and different being a major, especially the Masters. This golf course and this tournament is just different. I think because it’s the Masters. I dreamed of having a chance to play in this golf tournament. I teared up the first time I got my invitation in the mail. We were fortunate enough to play here in college, and I love this place. I love this golf course.
“If you’re going to choose a golf tournament to win, this would be the tournament I would want to win. You don’t know how many chances you’re going to get. And so having a chance, you know, I think I had a five-shot lead on Friday and then a three-shot lead going into today, I don’t know if you get better opportunities than that. You don’t want to waste them. The human condition is to make things bigger than they really are. And years from now I would say people may not remember me as a champion, and that’s fine. But in the moment, you think it’s a lot bigger deal than it really is.”
How did Scheffler settle down?
“I think when (Meredith) made me some more food, had a big breakfast. My stomach has been hurting for two days straight. I would say I calmed down when I got to the course. Right when I got to the training room and started working with (my trainer), I was pretty calm,” he said.
At the end of Scheffler’s Green Jacket ceremony, CBS’s Jim Nantz noted, “There was emotion in there after all. He just has a great way of hiding it, doesn’t he?”
Indeed, he does. Who knew he had been suffering from stomach pains and crying uncontrollably in the lead up to the final round of the Masters.
“Maybe I should play more poker or something,” he joked. “Truly I felt peace when I’m on the golf course. I think the hardest stuff is off golf course. When I’m out there and once we get into the round, pretty much after parring the first hole I was settled in. I felt good.”
It pays to play well, especially at Augusta National.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Drinks are on Scottie Scheffler for the foreseeable future.
The 25-year-old Texan claimed his first major title on Sunday at the 86th Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, earning a green jacket and a cool $2.7 million for his three-shot victory over runner-up Rory McIlroy, who will take home $1.62 million.
This year’s event set a pair of records in regards to prize money, with a $15 million purse, up from $11.5 million in 2021. Not only that, Scheffler’s payday is slightly up from the $2.07 million Hideki Matsuyama earned last year. Professionals that failed to make the cut – like Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau – earned $10,000.
Check out how much money each player earned below.
The answer is it’s a run we rarely see in any sport. But in golf? This is wild.
He won the Phoenix Open back in February. Weeks later, it was a victory at the Arnold Palmer. To get to world No. 1, he won Match Play in a final against Kevin Kisner.
And now? He’s a major champion at age 25.
Also, he’s A LOT richer thanks to this run, and you’ve got to see just how much money he’s made in just a few months in this run to the top:
Scheffler backed up his title of world No. 1 with his first major championship.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Scottie Scheffler entered the final round of the 86th Masters with a three-shot lead and walked off the course with a three-shot victory.
The world No. 1 backed up his new title with an impressive performance at Augusta National Golf Club, winning the green jacket at 10 under for his first major championship and fourth victory in his last six starts. The 25-year-old Texan shot a 1-under 71 on Sunday to hold off a charging Rory McIlroy, who signed his name to the lone bogey-free round of the week, an 8-under 64 aided by a hole-out from the bunker on the 18th green.
Scheffler is just the fifth player to win the Masters while ranked No. 1, joining the likes of Ian Woosnam (1991), Fred Couples (1992), Tiger Woods (2001 and 2002) and Dustin Johnson (2020).
Cameron Smith, winner of the 2022 Players Championship, entered the final round in second place at 6 under but struggled to keep up the pace, shooting a 1-over 73 to finish T-3 with Shane Lowry at 5 under.
And that was true before he found himself in the bunker on No. 18 at Augusta, with as tough a shot as there is on that legendary golf course.
But he ended an all-time amazing round by burying the shot for one final birdie to finish the day. Even if he ends up finishing second to Scottie Scheffler, that round and shot will be remembered for a long time.
You know what else will be? The celebration of that shot. And I’m not here to make fun of it! You should celebrate like that.
And then Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa approached the 18th green.
Both players found the back-right bunker behind Augusta National Golf Club’s final hole and both proceeded to hole-out on consecutive shots, sending the patrons into an absolute frenzy of cheers and chants of “Rory! Rory!” and “Collin! Collin!”
The sand-save earned McIlroy the week’s first bogey-free round as he shot up the leaderboard on the final day to post a 8-under 64 and put up a number at 7 under for the tournament, just three shots behind 54-hole leader Scottie Scheffler at the time.
Get to know the guy on his way to winning a green jacket.
Barring a Masters back-nine disaster, Scottie Scheffler is on his way to winning a green jacket.
He entered Augusta in 2022 as the world’s No. 1 golfer, which is what we in the business usually call a meteoric rise, considering that he’s going to turn 26 years old in a few months.
But given that he’s only played a few years on the PGA Tour, you may not know a lot about him. That’s what we’re here for! So as you watch him play his final round on Sunday as he chases a major, here are a few facts about Scheffler you should know:
AUGUSTA, Ga. — To hear them talk, Masters Tournament patrons can never get enough of the tasty sandwiches sold in the concession stands around Augusta National Golf Club each year.
But if you’re making them all night, as Dougie Milne did for the first time during the 2022 Masters, you can get too much of a good thing.
“I’ve seen so much of those sandwiches in the last week I probably couldn’t eat any of them,” said Milne, a junior at Florida State who is from Jacksonville, Florida.
That includes the Masters Club, which he says was “delicious” until he had too many of them.
The Masters Club is one of the six offerings that come in the famous green wrappers at the concession stands. The others are the Pimento Cheese sandwich, Egg Salad sandwich, Ham and Cheese on Rye sandwich, Chicken Salad on Brioche and the Classic Chicken sandwich.
Pimento Cheese, the tournament’s most famous sandwich, is also the hardest to make, Milne discovered.
“It’s hard because after they make (the pimento cheese), it sits in a freezer and if it isn’t thawed out enough, it gets tough and thick,” he said. “Sometimes you have wait for it to thaw out and get a little softer. Because if it’s too thick when you scoop it, it can rip the bread.”
To ensure that each sandwich is fairly uniform, they are weighed, he said.
“The entire sandwich is supposed to weigh about 4.25 ounces, but sometimes that bread is a little thicker and it’s going to weigh more,” he said. “Normally, I don’t exceed 4.5 ounces and I won’t go anything less than 4 ounces. Sometimes you get too big a scoop and have to cut some of it off.
“At this point,” he said, “it’s not too challenging to make them; it’s the quantity we have to make.”
Milne worked in tournament operations, making sandwiches starting Thursday night through Sunday morning. The sandwich-making operation is housed in a shopping center on Washington Road. It had been anchored by a Food Lion grocery store, and included shops and restaurants. Now, it has been gutted, and blinds hide the work going on inside.
A patron holds a pimento cheese sandwich along with a beverage at the 2022 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. (Photo: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports)
“It’s one big building; it kind of looks like a Publix,” Milne said. “Half of it is just for sandwiches and a couple of big coolers to keep the food. There is a big kitchen and a dining area.”
On Sunday, Augusta National would not disclose where the sandwiches are made.
“I’m sorry, we would not comment on that,” said Regina O’Brien, the club’s Director of Marketing and Communication.
Milne said he worked at one of 40 tables, each consisting of seven workers making sandwiches. He estimates his table produced “six or seven thousand” sandwiches each night. He didn’t work the practice-round days.
Starting with his shift Thursday night for Friday’s second round of the Masters, he said the operation made “probably well over 100,000 sandwiches” per night.
To ensure freshness of the sandwiches, Milne and the other workers started at 7 p.m. and worked until about 7 a.m.
“They don’t really tell you when to leave,” Milne said. “If you get loopy (because of the predawn hours) and you can’t work, then you can leave. Or if you have a ride, you can leave. A couple of nights people got off early and I worked from 7 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. (to cover for them).”
Milne said he never left early, and working 12 hours straight – and overnight – was a shock to his system.
“Maybe it’s just me because I’m a college student, but it’s been challenging working for 12 hours straight, especially overnight. I’ve met some people who have been doing this for the last 20 years.
“I’m glad I pushed myself,” Milne said. “There have been some days I get back home and wake up and I’m exhausted and know it’s going to be a long night (coming up). I bought a big case of Red Bull to power me through the night.
“Honestly, it’s been an amazing experience,” he said. “I’ve met so many great people that worked for the Masters for years on end.”
It even ended on a high note. It didn’t look like Milne was going to be able to attend the tournament, but at the last minute he got a ticket.
“One of my good friends in Tallahassee has an aunt and uncle who love the Masters and always go on the weekend,” Milne said. “They were unable to go on Sunday so they offered him their two passes and he texted me and said ‘Hey, I know you’re out there working hard, and my aunt said you can use her pass.’ So he drove up from Tallahassee.”
It looked like Scottie Scheffler’s start to his Masters Sunday with the lead was going to be a rough one.
Cameron Smith was 8-under through two, one shot behind the world’s No. 1 golfer as they started the third hole at Augusta.
And then Scheffler went VERY wide left (as did Smith). His second shot was short of the green and rolled back. It seemed like there was no way he could recover from that, even with Smith’s second rolling right next to his.
But then? Scheffler buried his third shot for a shocking birdie, one that he needed badly. Check this out:
