Scottie Scheffler wins Masters for 1st major championship
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Scottie Scheffler capped off a tremendous two months together with his grandest feat of all, successful the Masters on Sunday to validate his new standing as the perfect participant in golf.
The one stumble got here on the finish when Scheffler wanted 4 putts from 40 ft earlier than he may declare his first main, and that solely mattered within the report guide.
He closed with a 1-under 71 for a three-shot victory over Rory McIlroy, who holed out from the bunker on the ultimate gap for a record-tying ultimate spherical of 64 that gave him the briefest second of hope that Sunday stress at Augusta Nationwide may get to Scheffler.
No probability. Not on Sunday. Not the final 4 days. Not the final two months.
And to suppose it was simply 56 days in the past that Scheffler was nonetheless looking for his first PGA Tour victory. The 25-year-old from Dallas, constructed for stardom from when he was a 10-year-old sporting lengthy pants to look the half of a professional, now has 4 wins in his final six tournaments.
No prize was larger than that inexperienced jacket.
The Sunday theater, thrilling and tragic, belonged to everybody else. Scheffler overcame a nervy second early within the spherical by chipping in for birdie. He delivered key putts to maintain Cameron Smith at bay and by no means appeared rattled, whilst he was swatting at brief putts on the finish.
WATCH | Scheffler cruises to Masters win:
American Scottie Scheffler finishes the Masters at 10-under par for his fourth event victory in six begins. 2:21
McIlroy was the runner-up. It was Smith who felt as if he let one get away. The Aussie was nonetheless within the sport, three photographs out of the lead, when he dumped his tee shot in Rae’s Creek on the par-3 twelfth gap for triple bogey and ended his hopes.
Smith closed with a 73 and tied for third with Shane Lowry, who birdied the 18th for a 69.
Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., was the highest Canadian on the Masters. He shot a ultimate spherical 70 and completed tied for sixth at 3-under for the championship.
Fellow Canadian Mackenzie Hughes, a Hamilton, Ont., native, shot a 78 on Sunday and completed his event tied for fiftieth.
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Scheffler joined Ian Woosnam in 1991 as the one gamers to win a significant — the Masters in each circumstances — of their debut at No. 1 on the planet.
Everybody ought to have seen this coming. He gained the Phoenix Open in a playoff on Tremendous Bowl Sunday. He adopted that with a comeback win at Bay Hill to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He rose to No. 1 on the planet by successful the Match Play two weeks in the past in Texas.
And now this.
Scheffler, who completed at 10-under 278, gained $2.7 million US from the $15 million prize fund. That brings his whole to $8,872,200 over his final six begins.
Scheffler’s huge second got here early within the spherical, and it was no much less vital.
Beginning the ultimate spherical with a three-shot lead, he watched Smith open with two straight birdies to the lower the deficit to 1, after which Scheffler’s method from the pine needles left of the third fairway got here up brief and rolled again down the slope.
His pitch was racing towards the outlet when it banged into the pin and dropped for an unlikely birdie, and a two-shot swing when Smith from the identical place made bogey.
Nobody received nearer than three the remainder of the best way. Solely the contenders modified.
The twelfth gap stays essentially the most riveting par 3 in golf, the scene of extra collapses than comebacks. Smith grew to become the most recent sufferer.
Coming off birdie at No. 11, his shot was nonetheless within the air when he let his membership slip via his arms and he slowly closed his eyes twice because it splashed into Rae’s Creek. The following shot wasn’t significantly better, however at the very least dry, and Smith’s hopes ended there with a triple bogey.
He was three behind standing on the twelfth tee. Three holes later, he was eight again.
From there, any hope resided with McIlroy. All he wanted to finish the profession Grand Slam was to match the perfect ultimate spherical in Masters historical past and get some assist from Scheffler. He solely received a type of and needed to accept his first silver medal from Augusta.
Not that he did not create some Sunday magic. McIlroy went bunker-to-bunker on the 18th gap, leaving himself proper of the inexperienced and aiming some 25 ft proper of the flag. It rode the slope all the best way into the outlet, setting off one of many loudest roars of the week.
Morikawa adopted him in from the identical bunker, completely different angle, and McIlroy may solely snicker.
“This event by no means ceases to amaze,” McIlroy stated. “That is as joyful as I’ve ever been on a golf course proper there. Simply having an opportunity — after which with Collin, we each performed so effectively all day — and for each of us to complete like this, I used to be simply so joyful for him, too.
“I’ve by no means heard roars like on the 18th inexperienced.”
The very best ones have been saved for Scheffler.
Scheffler nonetheless have 5 holes in entrance of him, with no proof he was going to be something however the easy, good operator who seized management on Friday within the hardest situations to construct a five-shot lead and by no means misplaced it.