Atlanta, Georgia It was Sunday, November 15, 2020, and in the Covid-Altered World the final round of the only Fall Masters tournament was played with almost no one but the players and a few observers who had the feeling that they had the most famous tournament of the game for themselves.
Scottie Scheffler was 11 shots behind the final winner Dustin Johnson and was linked to Tiger Woods for the only time in his PGA Tour career. Scheffler was on the Tour in his second full year and did not know how to change the bow of his career at the time.
“We are in 20th place or whatever goes in the Masters on Sunday, Tiger has won five Masters, he has no chance to win the tournament. Then we showed up on the first hole and I saw him read his putt, and I was like, oh, my God, this man is now in it,” said Scheffler.
“I can’t tell you the look on his face when we came to the first green, and I look over … And this man is just locked up, and I was stunned. I was like, holy smoke. Then we came to the second hole, and he had this chip shot and he looked at it as if it was one to win the tournament.
Scheffler still grew in the PGA tour and said that he sometimes “relaxed” his way to tournaments. There is a truth that a shot counts on Thursday as much as one in the last nine holes on Sunday and Scheffler always understood that.
But watching Woods up close, although he had no chance to win, was revealing. Scheffler is always based on his swingedundamentals, but watching the master on the work-at the Masters-Bracht Scheffler to re-evaluate his approach.
“That was something I just thought of for a long time. I felt like a change that I had to make was bringing the same intensity for every round and every shot,” Scheffler said.
“I feel that the reason I have been successful in these tournaments is – I am not getting the ball understood
“When I come to a tournament, I am here for a goal and that is hard compete, and you compete hard on every shot. I think it is a lot easier said than done, and I think I have been in a good headroom in recent years where I have been able to get up about a ball and concentrate on what I do and just try to get.”
There is an addendum – two of them actually – for Scheffler’s Tiger Moment.
“If I take a week off, I can just as well stay at home … If I play in a tournament, I will give it all.” – Scottie Scheffler
That was Sunday when Woods made a 10 on the par-3 12th hole when he hit three balls in Rae’s Creek. It was surprising to see that the five-time Masters champion, the defending champion that week, made such a mess. There had been times when it seemed that Woods could have walked through Rae’s Creek, but that Sunday he had trouble getting his tee shot about it.
From there, Woods closed with five birdies in his last six holes, a Sunday 76 sprinkled with diamonds and rust.
“It was as if, what is this guy still for? He has won the Masters four or five times. The best finish he will have in 20th place at the moment,” Scheffler said.
“I just admired the intensity that he brought to every round, and that is something that I try to pursue. If I am going to take the time to come out here every week – as if it is not easy to play a golf tournament. If I am going to take a week off, I can stay at home as well.
Here is the second part: While playing with Woods, Scheffler took a look in his golf bag and was hit by the irons he used. Scheffler let Taylormade make him a set – they are the P7TW model – and he has been using them since then, so that they are checked weekly to ensure that his specifications are berped.
While Scheffler is trying to be the first player this week who wins successive Fedex Cups on the Tour Championship and adds to his five-winning season, which includes two major championships, comparisons with Woods have increased.
What Scheffler has done – 18 victories, including four Majors since the beginning of 2022 – remains a relatively small sample size compared to the 82 tour of Woods and 15 Majors, but the level of the dominance and separation of Scheffler of his competitors has requested the analogy.
Not that Scheffler listens to the sound.
“I think in the simplest form I am very crazy to be compared to Tiger Woods. I think Tiger is a man who is alone in the game of Golf, and I think he will always do that. Tiger inspired a whole generation of golfers. You grew up watching what he did week in, week out,” Scheffer said.
“I talk about a mental change that I made because I played a round wave with him in a tournament. I only played one round tournament wave with Tiger Woods, and it changed the way I look at how I play tournaments.
“I don’t even like comparisons with other players, because I think that when we come here, I do the best that I can be the best version of myself. I don’t think of Legacy, I don’t think about the past. I try to get the most out of myself every week.
“I just don’t really like the comparisons.”
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