There aren’t many things that Augusta National and the Masters Tournament Committee do wrong, but one of the lesser celebrated things they do right is having the previous year’s champion be the man to present and dress his successor in the Green Jacket.
This effective crowning, this effective passing of the torch might seem like a trivial thing in comparison to the 72 holes – 73 in this year’s case – of drama that precedes it, but for the player that’s reduced to a sideshow in the Butler Cabin and later on the 18th green, it’s hell. It has to be.
You don’t become a Masters winner without being a fierce competitor, and just 12 months previous you were the centre of attention, the one every photographer’s lens was trained on, the one every scribe was desperate to interview, the one who dominated headlines for the weeks and months following.
Not every professional loves the limelight, but when it’s for sporting achievement, they all love the reason they’re in it.
This year, world number one and pre-tournament favourite Scottie Scheffler had to play sidekick to world number two Rory McIlroy.
It wasn’t Scheffler’s week and, thus far at least, it hasn’t been Scheffler’s year, but he began the final round tied with Justin Rose and finished solo fourth, just three back with something he’d probably rank as his ‘B-minus’ or ‘C-plus’ game.
There’s no doubt that McIlroy has stepped it up a gear in 2025, but there’s also no doubt that Scheffler’s surgery-requiring hand injury has had an affect on his own. How much is hard to quantify, and he himself stated that he’d never been better prepared arriving at Augusta National, but you wouldn’t expect him to admit that he’s struggling with any facet of his game.
It was always going to be hard for Scheffler to reproduce the sort of form he’d shown in 2024, but that his B and C games are still good enough to be a regular feature on leaderboard first pages is ominous should he even marginally sharpen up.
And this is where the Green Jacket ceremony comes in.
What better motivation than being forced to present the thing you covet most to your biggest rival. We saw that in 2005 when Phil Mickelson draped Tiger Woods in green, and a year later the roles were reversed.
The same level of personal animosity that Tiger and Phil famously had might not be applicable to Scheffler and McIlroy, but on purely competitive terms, you’d better believe it exists.
Talk of a Rory Grand Slam to follow the Career Grand Slam that he secured on Sunday was inevitable, as was talk of a Scheffler Grand Slam this time last year, but such a feat would be the greatest accomplishment in golfing history, so forget about that for now.
Instead, focus on what’s virtually guaranteed and that’s that Scheffler sees McIlroy coming in his rearview mirror. He began the year at world number three, but has quickly overtaken Xander Schauffele in second place in the OWGR and cut the gap at the top to less than three points with his Masters victory.
He’s still trailing by a considerable amount, but Scheffler being dethroned – something that seemed implausible at the start of the year – could be realised very quickly if both players continue on their current trend.
Quail Hollow, venue for the PGA Championship, is a place where McIlroy’s won four times and where Scheffler has yet to play a competitive round, usually opting to play the Byron Nelson the week prior in his native Texas, and missing out on last year’s Signature Event there due to the birth of his first child.
McIlroy will be the main talking point when the PGA rolls around, regardless of what he does between now and then, but Scheffler will be intent on spoiling the party and reminding everyone exactly why he’s been the dominant force on the PGA Tour for the past two-and-a-half years.
The ceremonies in the Butler Cabin and on the 18th green won’t be the only reasons for that, but it will add a little extra spice.
And that’s something that benefits us all.
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