Scheffler’s superpower ability to let things go was key to Masters romp

WNo matter how hateful you thought when you saw it on TV, Scottie Scheffler didn’t win the Masters when he made that tricky birdie putt from 10 feet on the eighth green, when he hit that lob wedge to six inches on the ninth, or when he clinked that 340-yard drive through the middle of the 10th for his third straight birdie. No, he later explained, he won it in about 2024, years before the tournament even started. “I believe today’s plans were drawn up many years ago, and there was nothing I could do to ruin them,” Scheffler explained. And there you were thinking that God has bigger things to worry about right now than who won that green jacket.

Well, you mock if you want. But there’s no doubt that it gives a man a certain edge on the fairways to know he has the Almighty behind him, even if he isn’t actually carrying his bag. Scheffler has another passionate Christian, Ted Scott, to do that for him. As Scott said, “Having the God of the universe, the Creator, on your side makes things a lot easier to deal with.” This was Scott’s fourth Masters victory. He had already won one with Scheffler and a few others with Bubba Watson, and he celebrated by walking across the clubhouse lawn, waving the flagpole from the 18th green, as if he were leading the Crusaders into Jerusalem.

Prayer is no more ridiculous than anything else golfers try to improve their game. In any case, God is a lot cheaper than the sports psychologists, swing doctors and snake oil salesmen that some other professionals work with on tour. Whisper it, but he works better for Scheffler too. He said he felt overwhelmed Sunday morning until “my friends told me my victory on the cross was secure.” This means, you think, that Jesus died to win it for him. “It is a very special feeling to know that I am safe forever and that it does not matter whether I win or lose this tournament.”

Scheffler’s faith seems to mean that he believes that as long as he does his part in practice, he doesn’t have to waste his time worrying about the bad breaks and wrong shots because none of that is in his control anyway. So in between swinging his bat he just let his mind wander wherever he wanted. “I tried to take in things around me, I looked at the trees sometimes, I looked at the fans sometimes.” Imagine that. The man sits with a two-shot lead across the field to Amen Corner, one of the toughest little stretches of holes in championship golf, and he stands there admiring the dogwoods.

That’s what makes him so good. Scheffler’s superpower isn’t his skill off the tee, or his short game. It’s his ability to forget his last shot and move on to the best work of his next shot. That’s a lot harder than it sounds, especially when the heavy pressure comes down. He plotted his way through his final lap. Watch as the other leaders play the 11th again, Ludvig Åberg got sucked into trying to make a draw around the corner and ended up in the water. Collin Morikawa made the exact same mistake. Only Scheffler hit a fade, meaning he missed to the right, safely into the fairway.

The man has been going like this all year. He hasn’t had a single round above par this side of Christmas. Every bogey is followed by a birdie. He lasted through all four days of the Masters, including two of the toughest anyone can remember. “Brutal,” Phil Mickelson said Friday afternoon, “about as hard a golf course as I’ve seen in a very long time,” Jon Rahm added, “as hard as I’ve ever played it,” Charl Schwartzel said. Scheffler didn’t disagree with them: “I can’t even describe to you how difficult the conditions were,” it was just that he still got by in 72, and did so on the wrong side of the draw.

“I have been given this talent,” he said, “and I am using it for the glory of God.”

If there’s a catch, it’s that it all means he sometimes seems a little conflicted about whether he’s allowed to enjoy the game he’s playing. “Professional golf is an endlessly unfulfilling career,” he said. ‘For example, in my head all I can think about is coming home.’ It is, he says, his third priority in life, after God and his wife Meredith. No one has asked him which of them will get the No. 1 spot, but either way, golf is about to be defeated again because the Schefflers expect it. “My son or daughter will now be the main priority, along with my wife, so golf will now probably be fourth in line.”

Still, the way things work for him, Scheffler has to do more for the cause on tour than the Gideons have managed to do in the last hundred years. Expect the must-have accessories on the practice range here next year to be a crucifix and rosemary.