Around the greens, he’s got softer hands than a baby nurse, and he’s going to need them at home soon. His wife, Meredith, is due with their first child in two weeks, but his nerves betrayed no anxiety.

“I guess that’s a testament to how good of a head space I was in,” Scheffler said. “I wasn’t thinking about it that much.”

He just played.

Two birdies and two bogeys through eight holes left him even for the day and 7-under for the tournament, and Åberg, playing a group ahead, tied him with a downhill, right-to-left birdie bomb on hole No. 9. Scheffler evaded the drama; he stuffed his approach to 6 inches to regain the lead.

He birdied 10 for good measure as Åberg hit his approach into the water on 11 and made double-bogey for a brief four-shot spread between them. Homa was within one shot after Scheffler’s bogey on 11, but Homa hit it deep on No. 12, took a drop, made double-bogey, and was done. Scheffler birdied 13 and 14, stuck his par-3 tee shot on 16 and made the putt, and that was that.

None of his competitors were surprised.

“It’s been a while since we’ve had a guy out here that tees it up and he’s supposed to win and then wins,” said Xander Schauffle, who finished eighth.

Scheffler loves to win, but for him, winning is a byproduct of preparation. That’s as true for Thursday’s RBC Heritage as it was for the Masters.

“When I step up on the tee next week,” Scheffler said, “I’m going to be thinking about the preparation, what it took to get there, and then I’m going to go out and just try and play as freely as possible.”

Seems to be working.

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