SCOTTIE SCHAEFFER MAKES MASTERS HISTORY DESPITE FALLING SHORT TO RORY MCILROY

Scottie Schaeffer came up just short of another green jacket, but his performance at Augusta National still etched his name into Masters history.

Andrew Redington/Getty 

The world No. 1 finished one shot behind Rory McIlroy at 12 under, settling for runner-up in the 2026 Masters. While McIlroy claimed the spotlight with his second straight win, Scheffler’s historic weekend and late surge told a story that will likely get overlooked.

After sitting 12 shots off the lead at the halfway point, Scheffler mounted a stunning comeback. He carded a 7 under round on Saturday and followed it with a 4 under 68 on Sunday, putting serious pressure on McIlroy down the stretch.

More impressively, Scheffler did not record a single bogey over the final 36 holes. According to PGA TOUR Communications, he became the first player in 82 years to play the third and final rounds bogey-free at the Masters.

The last time that happened was in 1942.

Historic Masters Weekend Puts Scheffler in Rare Company

Scheffler’s weekend was extremely impressive.

Across the final two rounds, he recorded nine birdies and an eagle while avoiding any mistakes on the scorecard.

His 133 weekend total also stood as a personal best at the Masters.

Even more remarkable, Scheffler nearly completed a full tournament without a bogey, something not seen in over eight decades. His precision and consistency allowed him to erase a massive deficit and nearly force a playoff.

He had just five bogeys all tournament, with four coming on Friday.

He pointed toward his Friday struggles as the reason he wasn’t able to win a third green jacket.

“I’d say Friday probably hurt the most in terms of my chances of winning,” Scheffler said. “I didn’t see many birdies out there Thursday afternoon, so going out on Friday, whatever they did to the greens to soften them up, they did some stuff. And I just wasn’t able to take advantage of that going out early on Friday.”

Despite the loss, this performance also extended his incredible run at Augusta. Scheffler has now finished inside the top five in five straight Masters appearances, reinforcing his dominance at the sport’s most prestigious event.

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Speaking after his round, Scheffler reflected on where things slipped away.

“Overall I’m not going to hold too many regrets, but yeah, definitely a little disappointed now,” Scheffler said. “But like I said, I started the weekend 12 shots back and ended up only one shot back. If I am going to blame anything, I should probably blame the first two rounds before I start looking at stuff from my last couple.”

He also pointed to a few key moments late in Sunday’s round that could have changed everything.

“Disappointing par on 13, and wasn’t able to get it in the fairway on 14, that was a shot I’d like to have back,” Scheffler said. “But then good birdies on 15 and 16, and really great stuff on 17. I hit two really good shots into 18 and the second shot just came up short.”

Scheffler hit a perfect putt on 17 that came within inches of dropping. Had it fallen, it likely would have forced a playoff with McIlroy, setting up a head-to-head battle between the two best players in the world for the green jacket. While it was a bummer for fans that it didn’t happen, Scheffler still etched his name into Masters history despite the loss.

- Dylan Tracy-Lindenbaum

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RORY MCILROY'S PRIZE MONEY REVEALED AS HE'S HANDED A HOST OF AUGUSTA PRIVILEGES

Rory McIlroy is in line for a significant financial windfall following his victory at The Masters

Rory McIlroy has won a Masters green jacket after an extraordinary final Sunday at Augusta, with the rewards for the greatest triumph of his career set to flow for years to come.

McIlroy hailed a “dream come true” after beating Justin Rose in a Play-Off to win the 89th Masters and finally complete the career Grand Slam.

McIlroy threatened to squander a five-shot lead with eight holes to play before holding his nerve to birdie the first extra hole after an extraordinary final day at Augusta National.

“It’s a dream come true,” McIlroy said. “I have dreamt about that moment for as long as I can remember.

“Watching Tiger (Woods) here in 1997 do what he did, winning his first green jacket, I think that inspired so many of my generation to want to emulate what he did.

“It feels incredible. This is my 17th time here and I started to wonder if it would ever be my time.

“The last 10 years coming here with the burden of the Grand Slam on my shoulder and trying to achieve it, I wonder what we’re going to talk about going into next year.

“I’m absolutely honoured, thrilled and proud to be able to call myself a Masters champion.”

World No.2 McIlroy won $4.2m (£3.21m) in prize money from his Masters win, while he also closed in on No.1 Scottie Scheffler at the top of the world golf rankings.

His Masters glory comes with a host of privileges that ensures he will always have a date in his diary at Augusta for as long as he is playing golf.

He will host the annual dinner for former champions ahead of the 2026 Masters and will get a chance to select the menu for that event.

Along with his green jacket, McIlroy will get a replica of the Masters trophy he held aloft in an emotional trophy presentation at Augusta on Sunday evening.

He will have been presented with a Masters gold medal, with this tradition dating back to the first Masters in 1934. The 3.5-inch medal features a raised image of the clubhouse on the front.

McIlroy will be presented with a locket at the 2026 champions dinner, which is said to be a gift for the wife or partner of the champion.

He will be a lifelong member of Augusta National Club and will have his own locker in the champions area from this point forward.

McIlroy will also have the chance to practise on the ‘champions only’ golf range at Augusta every time he returns and he will also gain entry to all Major Championships for the next five years.

Another tradition sees the defending champion bring a guest to play a round at Augusta on the Sunday before the Masters gets under way, with 2024 champion Scheffler playing a round with his mother in 2025.

Once the emotion of this incredible win subsides, McIlroy will set his sights on more Major glory at the PGA Championship, which gets under way on May 15 at Quail Hollow Club.

- Kevin Palmer

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© PETER CASEY-IMAGN IMAGES

Rory McIlroy was locked in during his final round at The Masters. While that Sunday performance was a bit up and down, he ultimately emerged victorious in a playoff versus Justin Rose. In doing so, McIlroy became a Grand Slam winner.

The elusive Masters victory was finally achieved. The golfer was overcome with emotion after the fact.

McIlroy broke down in tears on the 18th green. A weight had been lifted from his shoulders. His playing partner, Bryson DeChambeau, saw his opponent’s determination throughout that final day.

DeChambeau said he was forced to play his final round in silence. McIlroy was too locked in.

“He didn’t talk to me once all day,” he said after the tournament. “He wouldn’t talk to me.”

The two players have a bit of history as it relates to the recent LIV-PGA Tour split. DeChambeau bolted for LIV money. McIlroy stayed put while championing moral superiority with The Tour. It was almost fitting to see them battle it out for the Masters win.

The duo had much different ways of dealing with the pressure atop of the leaderboard.

Bryson DeChambeau spent Friday night hanging with fans at The Masters.

He reportedly took a walk to clear his mind before the final rounds. He stumbled across a custom putting green in someone’s back yard.

He reportedly took a walk to clear his mind before the final rounds. He stumbled across a custom putting green in someone’s back yard.

A gathering took place at the home of Paul Pearman, an Augusta resident that enjoyed the golf action over the weekend. DeChambeau spent an hour or so hitting balls and getting to know the fan while taking his mind off of the competition for a brief moment.

It offered a much different approach that what we saw from a laser-focused Rory McIlroy. It’s somewhat expected, though, given DeChambeau’s ability to play loose and build off the energy of the crowd.

It seemed to pay immediate dividends, too, when he shot a 69. Unfortunately, DeChambeau wasn’t able to capitalize. He struggled on Sunday, shooting +3 on the day. He fell from second to fifth in the standings.

McIlroy, meanwhile, was able to fend off Justin Rose, who shot -6 in his final round. One extra hole was needed to decide this year’s Masters champ. The Northern Irishman came out victorious following a speechless Sunday finish.

- JACOB ELSEY

THE MOST DAUNTING HOLE IN AGUSTA

Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy plays out from the bunker on the 12th hole during a practice round REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

Considered the toughest hole in golf by none other than 18-times major winner Jack Nicklaus, the 12th hole at Augusta National Golf Club is where Masters dreams come to die.

At only 155 yards the hole is deceptive, with the smallest green on the course and a combination of swirling winds and a tiny target zone that make it a menace for the world’s best golfers. It is positioned in the heart of Amen Corner, the trio of holes 11, 12 and 13 that make up the toughest stretch of the course. 

“The best players find it difficult to do well in the Masters. They’ve got to keep their tensions down on the fourth day. That hole [12th] brings it out,“ said Dr. Deborah Graham, a PGA Tour psychologist.

The 12th hole epitomizes this challenge because it has an immense psychological impact on players, with many green jackets lost here on the final day. The pressure of the tournament combined with the hole's natural challenges can lead to costly mistakes.

Despite its reputation, statistically the 12th is not the hardest hole during the four rounds of the tournament. It has been played over 0.13 strokes above par across all four rounds from 2015 to 2024, making it the ninth-hardest hole overall. The hardest is the 11th, which has been played 0.34 strokes over par in the last 10 years.

The approach to the 11th and 12th seem to be different. The par four 11th offers fewer scoring opportunities, primarily because of its length at 520 yards (475 metres). The 12th offers a greater chance for a par and a potential birdie for those who reach the green without incident, especially during earlier rounds.

But the situation changes on the final day, when the 12th becomes the fourth-hardest hole on the course. Though the 11th, fifth and fourth holes have been harder in the last 10 years, successfully clearing the 12th on the final Sunday is the last major hurdle in the quest for the green jacket.

As a result, the 12th has seen more than its fair share of collapses in the final round. There have been 12 Sundays since the inception of the tournament where chasers or leaders have faltered on the hole. 

The most notable among these are Greg Norman in 1996, Jordan Spieth in 2016 and Arnold Palmer in 1959.  The graphic below shows how mistakes on the 12th from players highlighted in yellow played decisive roles in the tournament’s outcome.

When 15-times major winner Tiger Woods won his fifth green jacket in 2019, three players, Francesco Molinari, Tony Finau and Brooks Koepka, all found the water on the 12th. Molinari relinquished the lead at this hole, paving the path for Woods’ comeback victory.

So what makes the 12th hole so difficult?

In the simplest terms, it is the combination of wind, a small landing zone and psychological pressure that has plagued so many of the world’s best golfers. The landing zone on the 12th is tiny. The green is the smallest on the entire course and is angled at nearly 45 degrees from the tee box.

The landing zones on the wider side of the green vary from 11 to 16 metres. Most players play it safe and go for the larger landing zone on the lefthand side, but doing so leaves them with a longer putt. 

The nature of how righthanded golfers typically shape the ball also makes scoring here difficult. Most righthanded players hit a fade, which offers more control and consistency, but the slightest miscue in bringing the ball in from left to right could mean the difference between landing on the green or in the bunker.

The layout of the hole also plays into this. The green is surrounded by two bunkers at the back, one in the front and a creek right in front of the first bunker. If you aim to the left side of the green with a 144-yard shot, you may get the corner of the green but any shot right of that could land a player in the bunker – even if the power and shot shape are exactly the same.

Players at the 12th hole during practice for the 2018 Masters golf tournament
Source: REUTERS/Mike Segar

Over and above these considerations, it is the wind that makes the 12th hole truly treacherous. A 2016 John Hopkins study examining the effects of wind on the hole determined that “golf ball flight path over hole 12 strongly depends on the combined effect of plant canopy topology and the wind direction”.

Beyond the 12th hole’s bunkers lie enormous trees, approximately 30 meters in height. Their presence causes a phenomenon called ‘wake turbulence’ in the wind patterns within the area around the hole.

Wind speeds at Augusta Bush Field Station during the 2024 tournament

The study examined simulated ball trajectories using a nine iron on the 12th hole against winds from the north, north-west and south-west at 28 kmph. Professional male golfers average about 148 yards (137 metres) with their nine irons, according to Trackman, a radar system that tracks golf ball distances and trajectories. 

The study looked at simulated shots on the 12th with and without the tree canopy at the back. It concluded that “average wind speed along the path of the ball is significantly affected by the presence of the canopy… due to the presence of low-speed wakes”.

The least amount of dispersion was for balls hit when there was a prevailing north wind, which acts as a tailwind from the tee. Headwinds, on the other hand, create significant variation in the landing spots.

Sam Snead, an 82-times PGA Tour winner, referred to the wind at the 12th as a "whirlpool", which seems an apt description. Known as Golden Bell, the 12th is one of the most famous holes in golf. Almost unchanged since the inception of the Masters, it is uniquely designed to punish inaccurate shots. The folklore around the hole also gives players pause for thought, according to Dr. Joe Parent, a PGA Tour psychologist. “The beginning of the back nine is usually the hardest holes of the course,” added Parent. But it’s also “the shift in attitude in trying to play good shot but instead trying to prevent a mistake,” that leads to players faltering at the hole, he said.

“You have to commit to what you’re doing because the wind is swirling and I am there right over the left half of the bunker on Sunday just trying to get the ball on the green,” said defending Masters champion Scottie Scheffler.

Sources

PGA Shotlink; A computational approach for predicting plant canopy induced wind effects on the trajectory of golf shots, Neda Yaghoobian and Rajat Mittal; National Weather Service; Masters.com

Edited by

Simon Scarr and Peter Rutherford

-  Anand Katakam

The 2024 GREEN JACKET CEREMONY| THE MASTERS

MORE HISTORY FOR TIGER WOODS | HE MAKES THE MASTERS CUT FOR A RECORD 24TH TIME IN A ROW

AP Photo 

 AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — A howling gust -- the kind that created havoc at Augusta National all day long -- struck the 18th green just as Tiger Woods was lining up yet another testy putt. Fine particles of sand stirred from the pearl-white bunkers, whipping across the slick green surface.

One caddie’s hat was blown off. Woods turned away quickly, avoiding the potentially painful daggers to his eyes.

Not to worry.

It was just a windy respite on the way to another bit of Masters history Friday.

When the blast subsided enough to look again, Woods rolled in a 5-foot putt to cap an even-par 72 that ensured he made the cut for a record 24th time in a row.

Of course, his sights were fixated on a far greater goal — a record-tying sixth green jacket.

Woods broke the cut mark he shared with three-time champion Gary Player, who advanced to the weekend 23 straight times beginning in 1959, and 1992 winner Fred Couples, whose own streak lasted until 2007.

“I’m here. I have a chance to win the golf tournament,” said Woods, who was at 1-over 145 through 36 holes and seven strokes off the lead. "I got my two rounds in. Just need some food and some caffeine, and I’ll be good to go.”

It was a grueling day for the five-time Masters champion, even more so considering the 48-year-old has endured numerous injuries, countless surgeries and a devastating car wreck that nearly cost him his right leg.

Woods was back at the course before sunrise to finish up the final five holes of his opening round, which was cut short by darkness after storms Thursday morning delayed the start of the tournament by 2 1/2 hours.

He made a couple of bogeys to complete a 73, then had less than an hour to rest up for another 18 holes.

Remarkably, he played just one less hole Friday than his competitive total through the first three months of the year, his patched-up body no longer capable to handling a regular schedule of events.

Even with such limited preparation, there's something about Augusta National that always brings out the best in Woods.

“Yeah, I’m tired. I’ve been out for a while, competing, grinding. It’s been a long 23 holes, a long day,” he conceded. “But Lance (Bennett, his caddie) and I really did some good fighting today, and we’ve got a chance.”

Stewart Hagestad, an amateur who missed the cut, marveled at Woods’ performance.

“The guy has barely played at all in the last calendar year, and he’s 1 over,” Hagestad said. “That’s alien stuff. That’s unbelievable.”

With the crowd around the 18th green roaring like it was a Sunday, Woods' steely demeanor morphed into a huge smile as soon as the round was done. He hugged playing partner Jason Day, and gave another big squeeze to Bennett before a triumphant stroll to the clubhouse, the patrons lining the ropes four and five deep to applaud his effort.

“It was awesome,” said Max Homa, who rounded out the threesome with Woods and Day. “I always wanted to just watch him hit iron shots around here, and I was right up next to him. It was really cool. His short game was so good. I don’t think I can explain how good some of the chip shots he hit today were.”

Homa, tied for the lead with Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler at 6-under 138, was glad to cede the spotlight to Woods.

AP Photo

“He’s special,” Homa said. “We had a really quick turnaround, and if I was feeling tired and awful, I imagine he was feeling even worse.”

Homa was impressed as much as anything by the way Woods maintained his cool on the 18th green when the sand went flying with gusts approaching 40 mph for the second day in a row.

“We had sandblasts for 45 seconds, and I turned around five times so I didn’t get crushed in the face, and he’s standing there like a statue and then poured it right in the middle,” Homa said. “All the cliches you hear about him and all the old stories about how he will grind it out, it was fun to see that in person.”

Woods was as accurate as he’s ever been off the tee as a Masters professional, hitting 25 of 28 fairways through the first two rounds. But one wayward approach shot after another left him to do all sorts of scrambling.

Fortunately for Woods, he knew where to miss and kept pulling off nifty chips and clutch putts to keep his score safely above the cut line, which ended up at 6 over.

“I was forced to get up-and-down a few times today, and I was able to do that,” Woods said. “A lot of those chip shots I was able to get up-and-down because I left it in the perfect spot, and that’s understanding how to play this golf course."

Woods went through a stretch of six straight hole s before the turn where he made nothing but birdies or bogeys, but he settled things a bit on the back nine with a single bogey at the 14th — where his approach from 150 yards sailed into the gallery behind the green — and a two-putt birdie at the par-5 15th after clearing the pond with two booming shots.

Woods headed into the weekend facing a daunting deficit, needing a comeback of near-record proportions to win the tournament. Jack Burke Jr. had the biggest 36-hole rally, coming from eight strokes back to win the 1956 Masters.

Even though history is against him, Woods still thinks he has a chance to equal Jack Nicklaus' record of a half-dozen titles.

“I’m right there,” Woods said. “I don’t think anyone is going to run off and hide right now."

- PAUL NEWBERRY

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