Scottie Scheffler is clear Masters favourite but is nothing like Tiger Woods
Scottie Scheffler has been in top form on the PGA Tour this season and drawn Tiger Woods comparisons as he enters the Masters as favourite to win the green jacket
World No.1 Scottie Scheffler is the hottest favourite to win the Masters since peak Tiger Woods after showing Tiger-like consistency this season. But the God-fearing Texan is not like his fellow American off the course.
“I’m a faithful guy,” said the 2022 champion. “I believe in a creator. I believe in Jesus. Ultimately, I think that’s what defines me the most.”
Yet if the build-up to last year was all about how LIV stars would perform back in the Majors, the big question this year is who can stop Scheffler? He is the shortest-priced favourite here since Tiger Woods in 2011 after winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players and tied second at Houston.
Ian Woosnam, one of only five players to win here as world No.1, said: “I became world No.1 on the Monday and won the following Sunday. It was quite a week. Scheffler will have even more momentum going in this year. He is rightly the hot favourite and the man to beat.”
Former Ryder Cup player Andrew Coltart added: “You can’t look past Scottie Scheffler.”
The American won his first Major here two years ago after claiming three wins in five PGA starts. He is imperious from tee to green but has struggled on the greens and finished 53rd for putting out of the 53 players who made the cut here last year.
The American started working with English putting guru Phil Kenyon at the Ryder Cup and has changed to a TaylorMade mallet putter. He is still not great on the greens but when he putts well, he wins. Scheffler was fifth in the field for putting at Bay Hill and won by five.
He has now won eight times in 26 months to open up a big lead at the top of the world rankings. But Scheffler, 27, is too modest and polite to contemplate world domination.
“I try not to look too far into the future,” he said. “Hopefully I’ll be out here competing for a long, long time, but life throws crazy stuff at you sometimes. So we’ll see how long it happens, but hoping it’s going to be a long time.”
His beloved wife Meredith is about to give birth while Scheffler will be carrying the heavy weight of favoritism.
“He’s never come into the Masters with all of this anticipation on his shoulders as the No.1 player in the world, the hottest player in the world,” claimed Sky Sports analyst Butch Harmon “How he handles it, I think we will see right away on Thursday how he handles it with the kind of start he gets off to.”
Jon Rahm began with a double bogey after four-putting the first green last year before winning his second Major by four shots. Then he beat LIV’s top player with 54-hole leader Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Patrick Reed all finishing in the top five. Now the Spaniard has joined them in a $600m deal.
Rahm had won three of his eight starts before the Masters last year and has finished inside the top 10 at all five LIV events this season. And after happily talking about his Champions Dinner menu in his pre-tournament press conference, the world No.3 bristled at the suggestion he is coming in under-cooked. “If anything, I feel physically better than I did last year,” he said. “I do feel fresh and ready for it.”
The “framework agreement” between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund announced last June – and ongoing peace talks – have cooled the temperature in golf ’s civil war. But bad feeling persists and points are still to be scored. Rahm said last week he was “confident” one of the 13 LIV players here will win.
But Freddie Couples is definitely not a fan of the breakaway league. “I don’t think I’ll ever understand it,” said the 1992 champion. “Maybe I’ll go to one and see what it’s really, really like. Now, everything can get better, but let me tell you, if the LIV Tour is better for golf, I’m missing something there. So please don’t tell me the LIV Tour is as good as the PGA TOUR. I don’t want to hear it.”
