Scottie Scheffler rides strong final round to second Masters title

Scottie Scheffler ripped off seven birdies in the final round of the Masters on Sunday, including six over a nine-hole stretch, as he pulled away from the field to win his second green jacket at Augusta.

He finished 11-under par for the tournament and four strokes ahead of Ludvig Aberg, who placed second.

From a betting perspective, Scheffler was the odds-on favorite entering the tournament.

He was one of the biggest favorites to win the tournament in recent memory, as the 2022 winner came into the event at +450. Per SportsOddsHistory, those were the shortest odds to win the Masters since Tiger Woods was at +350 in 2013.

It was Scheffler’s second Masters victory in three years, a feat last accomplished by Bubba Watson, who won it in 2012 and 2014.

Scheffler made his move around the turn on Sunday. He made a nice putt at the eighth, then stuck his approach to a couple of feet for a tap-in at the ninth.

The world’s top-ranked player, who is widely considered the best ball-striker in the game, then gave himself another good look at the 10th and got that putt to reach 9-under for the championship.

Scheffler had been in a four-way tie for the lead at the eighth hole. By the 11th hole, he was starting to eye a victory.

Aberg and Collin Morikawa found the water at the par-4 11th just minutes apart on Sunday, and two of the closest pursuers to Scheffler suddenly found themselves falling out of contention.

Scheffler was either at the top of the leaderboard or close to it for much of the tournament. There were some points over the weekend where it appeared that the only thing that could stop him was if his wife, Meredith, went into labor with their first child. Scheffler’s wife didn’t attend the event as her due date is later in April and Scheffler would’ve withdrawn from the tournament had she gone into labor.

That didn’t happen, and now he’ll have a second green jacket as he becomes a father.

“I’m coming home,” Scheffler said in a message to his wife during CBS’ broadcast of the green jacket ceremony. “I’m coming home as quick as I can.

“It’s a very, very special time for both of us,” Scheffler added. “I really can’t put into words what it means to win this tournament again, I really can’t put into words what it’s going to be like to be a father for the first time. So I’m looking forward to getting home and celebrating with Meredith, it’s been a long week here without her.”

The 27-year-old Scheffler is the fourth-youngest player to have two green jackets. He stretches his lead at No. 1 in the world to levels not seen since the prime of Tiger Woods. Scheffler now has three victories against the strongest fields — Bay Hill, The Players Championship and the Masters — in his last four starts. The other was a runner-up finish in Houston.

Scheffler earned $3.6 million from the $20 million purse, pushing his season total on the PGA Tour to over $15 million in just nine tournaments.

Perhaps even more daunting for the rest of golf is that Scheffler still hasn’t had a round over par this year. He has 10 victories worldwide dating to his first PGA Tour title at the Phoenix Open just two years and two months ago.

During that stretch, Scheffler has finished in the top 10 a staggering 65% of the time.

Meanwhile, Woods finished the Masters with a record he could do without, walking off the course with a 16-over 304, his highest 72-hole score in a career that spans three decades.

Woods’ previous high was 302 at the Memorial in 2015. He has only failed to break 300 one other time at the Masters two years ago when he shot 78-78 on the weekend and finished at 301.

Despite the score, Woods called it a “good week” and said he’s going to begin preparing for the other three majors including the PGA Championship in May, the U.S. Open in June and the British Open in July.

“This is a golf course I knew going into it, so I’m going to do my homework going forward at Pinehurst, Valhalla and Troon,” Woods said. “But that’s kind of the game plan.”

Overall, he wasn’t unhappy with how he played.

“Coming in here, not having played a full tournament in a very long time, it was a good fight on Thursday and Friday,” Woods said. “Unfortunately (Saturday) didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted it to.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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