When Rory McIlroy’s winning putt finally dropped in the playoff on Masters Sunday, 2024 champion Scottie Scheffler’s title defense was over. And though he had failed to win his third Masters title, he still had an important job to do: put the green jacket on McIlroy’s shoulders.
Actually, he was required to do it twice.
The official Masters Green Jacket Ceremony is held outside the clubhouse near the 18th green, with droves of seated Augusta members playing backdrop to speeches by chairman Fred Ridley and the winner. The highlight, though, is when the winner from the year before helps the new champion into his green jacket.
But first, the winner heads to Butler Cabin for a made-for-TV Green Jacket Ceremony and an interview with CBS’ Jim Nantz.
Ridley is a part of that ceremony, and so too is the winner from the previous year, who has the same job as he does at the official ceremony.
Scheffler’s quick Butler Cabin exit
So once McIlroy had celebrated with his friends and family immediately after his win, and then headed to scoring to make it official, he took off to meet Scheffler in Butler Cabin.
McIlroy was interviewed to start the segment and quickly became emotional as the moment sunk in. Scheffler, on the other hand, had to awkwardly sit in silence next to Rory as the waterworks started, with Rory’s green jacket draped over his arm.
Once the interview was over, Ridley addressed Scheffler and laid down his marching orders.
“Scottie…” Ridley began, “We would be honored if you would now place the green jacket on our 2025 champion Rory McIlroy.”
Then the two pros stood up and Scheffler attempted to put the green jacket on McIlroy for the first time. While no one on Earth plays golf as well as these two men right now, they both struggled momentarily to get Rory’s right arm into the jacket.
But as soon the jacket slipped on, Scheffler took a step back and quickly exited stage right without even giving Rory a handshake, never to be seen again…
That is until two days later, when Scheffler showed up for his own winner’s ceremony at the RBC Heritage, where he will try to defend another 2024 title this week.
Scottie explains at RBC Heritage
The RBC ceremony included a ceremonial firing of a cannon as Scheffler hit a drive in his plaid winner’s jacket from that tournament. After the fanfare, he spoke with the media, and the topic of his swift Butler Cabin exit came up.
Scheffler was quick to explain what he was thinking.
“In that moment, like it was such an emotional day for [McIlroy], I kind of just tried to stay out of the way and basically get the jacket on without embarrassing him or myself,” Scheffler joked while starting to laugh.
Then Scheffler offered a more thoughtful description of his experience watching Rory win in person, and how he can relate to the relief McIlroy felt.
“I got to watch the whole celebration. I watched the finish. It was really cool for me to be able to see because I have — I don’t have the understanding of what it’s like to be asked about the career Grand Slam, but I have a small understanding of what it’s like to be asked, hey, you accomplished this, but you haven’t accomplished that. It can be very taxing on people sometimes.”
And Scheffler also revealed that from his perspective, the tenor of McIlroy’s celebration seemed like relief more than joy, something McIlroy confirmed Sunday evening.
“It was cool to be able to see Rory get the job done. Definitely from the outside it looked a lot more like relief than anything,” Scheffler said. “Rory has accomplished everything in the game of golf, and that was really the last thing for him to accomplish. The guy has won the FedEx Cup, the Players, all four majors. Maybe the only other thing would be the Olympics is what he would want to win.”
He continued, “So for him, it was really cool for me to be there in that moment. He’s a good friend of mine. To be able to congratulate him and just see the joy on him and his family was really cool.”
Fortunately for both Masters winners, following their initial Butler Cabin stumble, the official Green Jacket Ceremony went perfectly shortly thereafter. Which is especially important since there’s a very solid chance one or both of them will have to go through the ceremony again in the coming years.
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