The Masters is the PGA Tour’s biggest major tournament of the year, and every spring, invited golfers test themselves against the gorgeous Augusta National Golf Course in Augusta, Ga.
This year’s Masters champion was Scottie Scheffler, a 25-year-old from Ridgeway, N.J. and an alum of the University of Texas. Scheffler entered the tournament with the number one World Golf ranking and the number one FedEx Cup ranking.
Scheffler was hot coming into the tournament, and he kept this energy throughout the four rounds. He led by five strokes going into the third round, which ended up being a chilly day in Augusta, Ga. Scheffler powered through Saturday, along with Cam Smith, Shane Lowry and Charl Schwartzel, to gain a secure spot on the leaderboard going into Sunday.
On Sunday, Rory McIlroy made a surprising run for the jacket, finishing with a total four-round score of seven under par. Collin Morikawa, who was his playing partner, finished the tournament at four under par. The two chipped in a pair of sand bunker shots on the 18th hole to cap their final rounds.
Scheffler’s green jacket win comes as his fourth PGA Tour victory in about three months. He won the Waste Management Phoenix Open on February 13, the Arnold Palmer Invitational on March 6 and the Dell Technologies Match Play on March 27. He has also not missed a tournament cut line since October 2021.
Scheffler was praised for his poise, strength and ability to overcome the adverse weather throughout the four rounds at Augusta National. In interviews after his win, he was vulnerable and disclosed that he was especially anxious going into Sunday’s round.
“I cried like a baby this morning. I was so stressed out. I didn’t know what to do. I was sitting there telling [my wife] Meredith, ‘I don’t think I’m ready for this…’” Scheffler said. Alas, Scheffler was ready, and he took the golf world by storm with his dominating finish on Sunday.
Despite the many successful golfers in the field, like surging Scottie Scheffler, Cam Smith and perhaps even Jon Rahm or Dustin Johnson, the talk of the week was Tiger Woods’s return to golf.
Woods has been slowly making his way back onto the golf course after sustaining severe leg injuries in a single vehicle car accident in February 2021. (See “Tiger’s Hopeful Return” on The Waltonian’s website.) Doctors were even considering amputating his right leg, so the recovery was a hefty one.
Woods surprised everyone when he teed it up at the Masters. He played well in the first round and managed to make the cut after the second round. Tiger struggled the last two rounds, but afterward, he still expressed his gratitude and progress.
“Even a month ago, I didn’t know if I could pull this off,” he said. “I think it was a positive, and I’ve got some work to do and [I’m] looking forward to it.”
Sources: ESPN, Golfweek, Golf Channel, Golf Digest, Masters, PGA Tour