Scottie Scheffler said he was going to try to enjoy his latest victory, a four-shot triumph at the 88th edition of the Masters in Augusta, Georgia, on Sunday.
“I will go home, soak in this victory tonight,” he said during his winner’s press conference after shooting 4-under 68 at Augusta National Golf Club.
Scheffler, who won the green jacket for a second time, did just that. When he got back to Dallas, he paid a visit to the Inwood Tavern to celebrate. Scheffler rocked the green jacket over the outfit he wore in the final round —though he did swap out his hat.
Scheffler had a private jet on standby not far from the course in case wife Meredith went into labor prematurely — they are expecting their first child later this month — and flew home Sunday night. During his press conference, he admitted that he was anxious to get home to his wife.
“In my head, all I can think about right now is getting home,” Scheffler said. “I’m not thinking about the tournament. I’m not thinking about the green jacket. I’m trying to answer your questions and I’m trying to get home.
“I wish I could soak this in a little bit more. Maybe I will tonight when I get home.”
Scheffler’s festivities don’t appear to rival the next-level British Open celebration in Ireland that commenced shortly after Shane Lowry won the British Open at Royal Portrush in 2019, but props to Scheffler for soaking in the triumph at one of his hometown’s old-school bars.
[golfweek.com]
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Tony Finau was to the right of the 11th green at Augusta National trying to chip to an imaginary front pin, a tough shot when it matters. This was the first full day of practice Monday at the Masters, and it wasn’t any easier.
The first attempt rolled across the green and off the putting surface. So did the second.
It was like that all over the famed course, where the azaleas blooms are on their last leg and turf is firm under a blazing sun, save for a few minutes during the solar eclipse.
The conditions — always pristine, because everything is at Augusta National — is as good as players can remember. There is rain in the forecast for the opening round, but otherwise players are faced with what could be the two “F” words that take on different meanings to different games — firm and fast.
“The course is very firm,” Xander Schauffele said. “It’s probably some of the best shape I’ve seen in previous years, to be honest. I don’t know how the weather has been, but it’s a shame that it might rain at some point this week because it’s looking like a really hard, really firm.
“I was hitting 5-irons that were coming into par 5s that were bouncing, tomahawking over the green,” he said. “And I was like, ‘This is pretty cool.’ It’s been a while.”
Tiger Woods was first out when the course opened at 8 a.m. playing nine holes with Will Zalatoris. Several of them stopped in mid-afternoon to don special solar sunglasses — Masters green with the famous logo, sure to be a keepsake — for a look at the eclipse.
“Get to watch the end of the world at Augusta National, right?” British Open champion Brian Harman said with a grin.
This is the start of the major championship season, and the anticipation has been greater than ever, mainly because of the field. It’s the first time players from Saudi-funded LIV Golf are competing against those who stayed on PGA Tour. There is more curiosity than animosity, evident by Schauffele planning a practice round with Dustin Johnson.
There wasn’t a ton of planning that went into this.
“It’s Dustin,” Schauffele said. “I saw him and ... pretty on the fly.”
Johnson, among the first batch of players who defected to LIV, set the 72-hole record at 268 in the 2020 Masters in conditions as soft as any because it was played in November when the tournament was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If the course is playing hard and fast, it’s more difficult,” Hideki Matsuyama said, who won the year after Johnson. “Winning score is usually higher. When it’s wet, it can go to 20 under. I like both, but if goes to 20 under, my chances get slimmer. So I would like a tougher setup where it plays drier, faster and hard.”
Among players who chose not to play was Akshay Bhatia, for good reason. The Valero Texas Open was his fourth week in a row playing, and then his work was extended when he won in a playoff to qualify for the final spot in the Masters.
Bhatia’s left shoulder came out of its socket celebrating a playoff-forcing birdie putt on the final hole. He taped it up in time to hit wedge to the 18th on the first extra hole. And then he headed straight for Augusta and arrived about 1:30 a.m. Monday. Even for a 22-year-old, that’s a lot to take in.
“There’s still a lot to learn this week,” Bhatia said. “Just registering, getting the lay of the land. I’m going to talk to my psychologist this afternoon — he’s flying in tonight — and we’ll have a good game plan, some goals, and kind of get the ball rolling tomorrow.”
Bhatia is a true Masters rookie, one of 17 players (including four amateurs) who are competing at Augusta National for the first time.
Nick Taylor isn’t a rookie. He just feels like one. His only previous Masters was in 2020, when no patrons were allowed on the course because of the pandemic. The Par 3 Tournament was canceled because it’s mainly entertainment for the spectators and they weren’t there.
Taylor even skipped his ball across the pond on the par-3 16th, another Masters tradition that took a hiatus without fans in 2020.
“This is essentially my first true experience,” Taylor said. “Just having patrons out and stuff, that’s something I’ve not experienced. Even the locker room is a different spot now than it was when I was here, so I’m getting the lay of the land as the day is going.”
He couldn’t help but notice how much firmer it was from that November tournament in 2020. That’s going to be the real test at the Masters, depending on what the opening round holds.
[source: apnews.com]
Nelly Korda wasn’t about to let her feat go unnoticed. At a time when Scottie Scheffler was dominating the PGA Tour and nearly won for the third straight start on Sunday, it was actually Korda who checked off that box.
The 25-year-old pro fired a seven-under 65 to come from behind and win the Ford Championship at Seville Golf and Country Club in Gilbert, Ariz., on Sunday, successfully securing her third straight win.
Korda also won last week’s FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship, as well as her start before that, the LPGA Drive On Championship, in late January.
She’s the first player on the LPGA to win three straight starts since Ariya Jutanugarn in 2016 and the first American to do it since Nancy Lopez won five straight in 1978.
“It honestly feels like a blur,” Korda said. “Taking it day by day and really trying to stay very present, and just played really good golf, really solid golf in tough conditions today, which I’m really happy about.”
Korda’s bucking a trend, too. Last week was just the first time in her career she won despite not holding the 54-hole lead. Now, she’s made it two in a row.
Sarah Schmelzel, Carlota Ciganda and Hyo Joo Kim held the 54-hole lead at 15 under, but there was a ton of firepower near the top of the leaderboard. Lexi Thompson, Lydia Ko and Korda were among a group of 10 players tied at 13 under, two off the lead.
On a rainy Sunday, Korda birdied 5, 6 and 9 to turn in three-under 33, and after birdies on 12 and 13 she got to 18 under to steal the solo lead away from a group that included Thompson, who is still looking for her first win since 2019. (Korda and Thompson now both have 11 career LPGA victories.)
Thompson was four under through seven holes.
“It was crazy conditions,” Thompson said, “but it was almost just like it gets to where it’s mental when it comes to these kinds of conditions.”
Hira Naveed jumped into the mix with a four-under back nine, and her birdies on 16 and 17 got her to 18 under. It was right around that same time Thompson birdied 14 to make it again a three-way tie for the lead.
But that’s when Korda, who didn’t make a bogey on Sunday, pulled away.
With Naveed finishing her round, Korda made a birdie on 16 to be the first to get to 19 under. On the short par-4, she laid up to her ideal wedge yardage and nearly knocked it in for eagle. She said afterward they changed up her game plan on that hole, but other than that the plan was to be aggressive.
“I knew I had to shoot a low one to be in contention,” she said, “and I just played really smart golf out there today.”
Behind her, Thompson seemed like the most likely player to catch Korda. But Thompson, one back at the time, rinsed one in the water from the tee on the short par-4 16th. She made bogey, and then another bogey on 17. A birdie on 18 wasn’t enough. She shot 68 and finished three back.
When Korda got to the par-5 18th, the math was already working in her favor. She got near the front of the green in two and then chipped close and made her birdie tap-in for 20 under. At that time, even with nine players who teed off behind her, it seemed like the win was hers. About 40 minutes later, it was. She won by two over Naveed.
In just four starts this season, Korda already has three wins. That’s one shy of her most in any season, when she won four times in 2021. As for if she can make it four in a row? We’ll find out next week, when she’s in the field at the T-Mobile Match Play in Las Vegas.
“It’s very hard mentally to be 100 percent, especially after a win and especially playing in tough conditions,” Korda said. “As boring as it sounds, I was just taking it shot by shot and seeing where I was going to end up, but to get three in a row, that’s just a dream come true.”
[source:golf.com]
Scottie Scheffler burst onto the scene during the 2019-20 PGA Tour season, which was briefly interrupted by the pandemic.
Not many golfers and fans, both in and outside the sport, knew the talent Scheffler possessed at the time. Tony Finau was even one of those people.
“The first time I played with Scottie, I didn’t really know who he was because he was a rookie on the PGA Tour, and I played with him at TPC Boston,” Finau said Tuesday ahead of the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
“We’re playing together, and after nine holes, I think he shoots 7-under or whatever. I’m not really paying attention; I’m kind of focused on my own game. We get to the 17th, and he makes another birdie. I look over to my caddie, and I’m like, man, this guy’s got to be 8 or 9-under, and my caddie’s like, how about 11?”
During the second round of the 2020 Northern Trust, formerly the first event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs held at TPC Boston, Scheffler went on a tear.
He birdied eight of his first 11 holes, as the rookie soared up the leaderboard in the process.
Three more birdies at the 14th, 15th, and 16th holes followed, and by the time he arrived at the par-5 18th, Scheffler needed a birdie to reach golf’s perfect score: an illustrious 59.
Unsurprisingly, Scheffler did, in fact, birdie the 18th, holing a 4-footer to shoot 59.
“I was playing with him, and that was the first time I heard of him; it was the first time that I played with him,” Finau said.
“So that gave you an idea—maybe not the first time I heard of him, but I vaguely knew who he was coming from the Korn Ferry Tour. I knew he was a good player. But anyways, that was the first time I played with Scottie; he shot a 59 at TPC Boston, and I knew he was special from that moment on.”
Scheffler finished fourth that week, 13 strokes behind Dustin Johnson, who shot a preposterous 30-under for the tournament. But Scheffler went on to qualify for the Tour Championship, an impressive feat for any PGA Tour player, let alone a rookie.
Since then, Scheffler has made the 2021 and 2023 Ryder Cup teams, triumphed at Augusta National in 2022, and ascended to the world’s number-one ranking. He currently has eight PGA Tour victories to his name, two of which have come in his last two starts.
“When he won the Masters, I played with him the first two rounds, and it was evident to me that he was going to be hoisting the green jacket after that on Friday,” Finau added.
His tee-to-green metrics have been off the charts for the past two seasons, leading many to compare him to Tiger Woods. Scheffler rarely makes a mistake and finds fairways and greens at a rate not seen since Woods in 2006, when he won The Open Championship and PGA Championship.
But Scheffler’s charming personality and love for his family are infectious, too.
“I played enough rounds with him to know how great of a player he is, but I think it doesn’t beat the person that he is,” Finau said.
“I think he’s pretty fantastic for our game, and it’s cool to see all the success that he’s having.”
[Source: sbnation.com]
