Scottie Scheffler has dominion over Masters and all of golf

Surprisingly, Scheffler’s most serious challenger was the 24-year-old Swede playing in not only his first Masters, but also his first major. But when Aberg put his approach to No. 11 in the drink, just put his scorecard in a longboat, set it on fire and send it up Rae’s Creek for a proper Viking funeral.

Watching Scheffler whale on a golf ball with his feet flying around in so many unconventional directions, he looks like a guy auditioning for Dancing with the Stars, not the next great golfer.

But his record confirms that pretty can’t trump performance. Scheffler’s on a ridiculous – dare we say Tiger-like – roll of late. This Masters makes it three wins in his last four events, with a T-2 thrown in. None of his 35 rounds this year have been over par. He hasn’t missed a cut since August, 2022.

The great Scheffler dichotomy is in how he balances a very strong professed sense of perspective with an insatiable hunger to win.

On one hand, as he anticipates the birth of his first child, he says: “My priorities will change here very soon. My son or daughter will now be the main priority, along with my wife. So golf will now be probably fourth in line (add his faith in there, too).

Yet on the other, he recounts this conversation he had with his buddies Sunday morning before leaving for the course:

“I told them, I wish I didn’t want to win as badly as I do. I think it would make the (Sunday) mornings easier,” he said.

“But I love winning. I hate losing. I really do. And when you’re here in the biggest moments, when I’m sitting there with the lead on Sunday, I really, really want to win badly.”

It is not necessarily the greatest news for his peers that as Scheffler processes these emotions, he comes up with this plan: “I try not to think about the past or the future too much. I love trying to live in the present. I’ve had a really good start to the year, and I hope that I can continue on this path that I’m on.

“I’m going to continue to put in the work that’s got me here.”

They’re all chasing one man again. And golf so badly needs that kind of clarity now more than ever.

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