Scottie Scheffler: Tiger feat in world No1’s crosshairs at Masters
Scottie Scheffler has become accustomed to being compared to Tiger Woods and this week at the Masters the world No1 has another chance to emulate the 15-time major winner.
Woods is the last man to win back-to-back Green Jackets at Augusta National, a feat which has gone unrepeated since he was in his heyday in the early 2000s.
Scheffler can end that 23-year wait for a successful Masters defence with victory on Sunday. It would be his third at Augusta, just as it was for Woods back in 2002.
His opponents may draw some encouragement from the fact that the American is yet to win in January, February or March for the first time since 2021.
Scheffler has tended to blossom in early springtime, racking up multiple PGA Tour titles before the Masters in each of the last three seasons.
Those runs have always included at least one blue riband event – either the Arnold Palmer Invitational or the Players Championships – but not so this year.
In March he was 11th at Bay Hill and 20th at Sawgrass, although his form has been by no means bad, finishing no worse than 25th and missing no cuts.
Scheffler was third at the Genesis Invitational in February and, on his most recent competitive outing, finished a very close second to Min Woo Lee at last month’s Houston Open.
Sir Nick Faldo, a three-time Masters winner including a successful defence in 1990, is convinced that the recent flickers of form from Scheffler are ominous.
“Great players get excited,” said Faldo, who correctly predicted Europe’s win over the US at the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome.
“You are playing regular golf but your No1 thought, I can promise you, is Augusta. He probably had that since July. You start thinking and preparing and gearing everything up.
“He has got a great ability to turn it on and make it happen. He will be in it even if he is eight shots out of it for a while. I bet he will find a way to get to the top of the leaderboard.
“The better names generally will come to the top at Augusta through the week. There may be a few names we don’t recognise at the start but by the end of the week those guys will be there.”
McIlroy Scheffler’s main rival at Masters
Scheffler won a remarkable nine times last year, including seven times on the PGA Tour as he claimed the season-ending Tour Championship.
He also won the Hero World Challenge in December – his most recent title – and produced a magnificent final round to pip England’s Tommy Fleetwood to Olympic gold in August.
“He will put his work in and double the rounds he is playing. The round he played at the Olympics in Paris [a closing 62] was blooming amazing,” added Faldo.
Rory McIlroy is perhaps best placed to rival Scheffler as the Northern Irishman bids once again to shake his Masters monkey off his back.
McIlroy has won twice already this season, raising hopes that he could end a 10-year wait to complete a career grand slam this time around.
“He has had ideal preparation. Physically and technically he is really good. It is all down to the mental strength, dealing with the past,” said Faldo.
“He knows what his goal is. We can do everything from happy-go-lucky to ‘I am on a mission and put my blinkers on’. So that is for him to decide.
“I would be saying to myself, ‘I am the best player in the world when I am on. I am the best’. You know if you can do that, you are already beating 95 per cent of the field there.”