Scottie Scheffler’s second Masters defence was just three holes old and he’d already left a birdie putt short on the first, whiffed a drive right on two, missed a 12-footer for birdie on three by the time he reached the fourth.
With the tee pushed up, he had just an 8-iron in hand on the par-3, but by his incredibly high standards, finding himself 62 feet left of the pin. His birdie try was aggressive, racing at the hole and had it missed, would’ve run at least 12 feet past, leaving a slick swinger for par. But it didn’t miss. It found the centre of the cup and he found himself at two-under through four.
If there was any doubt that Scottie Scheffler was going to be a major factor at Augusta National, it was quickly dispelled.
It wasn’t quite a vintage performance from the world number one, however, but he still ended the day bogey-free, adding further birdies on eight and 16 for a four-under tally that was enough to share the clubhouse lead with Canadian, Corey Conners.
A three-putt on 13 was the only time that Scheffler’s short game or clean-up putting failed to get him out of jail, but he was satisfied with his day’s work.
“I would have felt pretty good about it,” he said when asked if he’d been told that he’d shoot 68 before starting. “I had a feeling the golf course was going to get pretty firm. The areas to hit your irons out here are pretty small and they get even smaller when the greens are firm, so there’s definitely some challenge to the golf course today, and I’m sure that’ll continue as the week goes on.”
As is well known, Scheffler’s pre-tournament preparation had been hampered by a hand injury sustained making Christmas dinner and requiring surgery, and in the weeks leading up to the year’s first major he’d spoken about not feeling entirely happy with his all-round game.
“I mean, it’s hard to really nail it down,” he explained. “I think sometimes you can just feel a little bit out of sorts. That’s why I said I felt more prepared than I have all year just because of time. I’ve had time to get reps in, tournament reps. I got into contention in Houston. That was really good.
“Just felt like I was in a good spot and my game was starting to trend in the right direction. That was just through reps.”
One of the long-term Masters trends is that the tournament winner tends to be inside the top 10 after the opening round, and barring a barrage of low scoring from the late starters, Scheffler’s will comfortably be among the names on the first page of the leaderboard.
But he’s a little surprised that more players haven’t come from the pack to contend and win over the final three rounds.
“I mean, I don’t really think about that stuff very much,” he admitted. “I don’t really care what happened in the last few tournaments. I think anytime you get close to the lead, it’s going to be easier for you to win the golf tournament. That’s a simple fact of the matter. You get off to a good start, statistically you’re going to have a better chance to win the tournament.
“I think around major championship golf courses, too — it’s funny because this is a golf course where there’s a lot of opportunities. There’s a lot of opportunity over the weekend. There’s a lot of opportunity on Sunday with where they put the pins.
“I’m a bit surprised that it’s like that, but I wouldn’t say that it can’t be done.”
Leave a comment