As Australian Min Woo Lee held his nerve to win his maiden PGA Tour title, world no.1 Scottie Scheffler issued an ominous warning to his rivals forward of his Masters defence.
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The 2-time inexperienced jacket winner led on the midway mark of the Houston Open in his residence state of Texas and made a shocking Sunday afternoon cost with 4 straight birdies from holes 13 to 16 to complete just one shot behind Lee.
He shot a seven-under par remaining spherical 63, after earlier within the match matching the course document at Memorial Park with a 62.
Scheffler was usually understated in his post-event press convention, merely saying “I preferred the best way my swing began to really feel over the weekend”.
Other than profitable a 14th PGA Tour title, Scheffler’s preparation for Augusta Nationwide couldn’t have been higher.
He had an detached begin to the yr, lacking early occasions because of hand surgical procedure after slicing it open on Christmas Day.
He has not completed worse than T25 in his six begins in 2025, however after the lofty heights of final yr, which included a second Masters triumph, an Olympic gold medal and a maiden FedEx Cup crown amongst eight wins, issues felt just a little off.
However his sport clicked into gear in Houston, significantly his brief sport in addition to rediscovering some constructive swing feels.
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Scheffler received up-and-down to save lots of par 15 out of 17 occasions throughout the 4 rounds, one of the best within the match and gained greater than seven strokes on the sector together with his placing.
The flat stick was as soon as Scheffler’s weak point, however into the third yr of a barnstorming run, he has turn into largely rock strong on the greens.
“I really feel like I holed a great quantity of putts this week, particularly underneath strain on the again 9 at present,” Scheffler mentioned after the ultimate spherical in Houston.
These statistics, and feedback from Scheffler, don’t bode properly for his main rivals, nor for Phil Mickelson.
Analysts, and bookmakers, have Scheffler because the favorite to win once more and be part of Mickelson, Nick Faldo, Gary Participant, Sam Snead and Jimmy Demaret as a three-time Masters champion.
However golf’s most well-known lefty strongly disagrees, taking to X final month with a number of daring opinions.
Mickelson posted that he believes the 28-year-old won’t win a match earlier than the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in New York this September.
He additionally mentioned that LIV golfer Joaquin Niemann is definitely one of the best participant on the planet for the time being.
Debate rages in regards to the standing of LIV golfers as their three-round occasions don’t obtain world rating factors, however even a few of Mickelson’s colleagues suppose that assertion was far-fetched.
Two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson argued on a podcast not too long ago that Scheffler’s 2024 yr was higher than Tiger Woods’ legendary 2000 season that included profitable three majors amongst, profitable 9 occasions from 20 begins, 4 runner-up finishes and 17 top-fives.
There appears to be a development amongst LIV’s large names to overstate issues.
Nonetheless, numerous golf consultants have been blown away by Scheffler’s run and rightly drawn comparisons to Woods’ peak.
Two-time US Open champion turned analyst for ESPN Andy North, not too long ago mentioned that the similarities between the pair are clear.
“I believe one of many issues that has been so spectacular about Scottie over the past couple of years is, he doesn’t make very many errors,” North mentioned.
“Perhaps he’s not as aggressive as a few of the different gamers. He is aware of when to be aggressive and when to not be.
“I believe he performs very very like Tiger did at his peak.
“He doesn’t make the form of errors you see so many different gamers on Tour make, the place you miss a inexperienced with an eight iron to make a bogey.
“Scottie doesn’t do that fairly often.
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“Final yr, he made the fewest bogeys per spherical of anyone on the Tour, and also you mix that with a man who makes as many birdies as anyone, he’s going to beat you on a regular basis.”
2008 Masters champion Trevor Immelman shared comparable sentiments, saying on CBS Sports activities that he believes that “since Tiger, Scottie is one of the best strategist on a golf course that we now have seen”.
“He has actually superb course administration. He is aware of precisely the proper time when to push, when to carry again, when to belief explicit components of his sport.
“And once you begin to add all of these issues collectively, you begin to realise why he’s so exhausting to beat (at Augusta).”
One other factor that drew comparisons to Woods was a latest video that has stolen the highlight from the numerous YouTube golfers who appeal to a whole bunch of 1000’s, if not thousands and thousands of views.
The Masters YouTube channel posted a close to half an hour video of Scheffler talking via key recollections of, and the way he navigates, each gap at Augusta Nationwide.
It was a refreshing approach to hear from Scheffler after years of weekly press conferences the place he has opted to present little and reiterated that he desires to maintain issues easy.
It was additionally a mind-blowing approach to perceive how subtle he and his caddie Ted Scott’s strategy is to each single shot throughout the 72 holes.
He talks in regards to the lowing hanging branches down the left on the second complicating issues when that’s the splendid line off the tee to make the par 5 attackable.
He opens up about the place his splendid misses are, together with brief on the lengthy par 3 fourth, and says par is a “actually good rating” and bogey is “not that unhealthy” on the par 4 fifth.
He revealed he opts for driver when many lay up on the seventh as a result of the small inexperienced with a bowl in the course of it’s exhausting to carry and fewer membership on strategy betters your possibilities.
When the whips get cracking on the again 9, he smirked when saying “for those who see my ball going on the flag, you understand I’ve pulled it” in reference to the eleventh inexperienced with the pond on the left.
The following gap is without doubt one of the most well-known par 3s in golf, and he mentioned he typically goes lengthy into the bushes to make sure he has sufficient membership to clear the daunting Rae’s Creek on the entrance.
After that’s the “peaceable” thirteenth tee and later he shares his perception that the par 3 sixteenth highlights how Augusta “does one of the best job on Sundays” of rewarding good photographs and punishing poor ones.
On the final, he recollects the daunting problem of getting to hit a useless straight drive via the slim shoot and shedding his focus and four-putting the 18th on Sunday regardless of his lead being sufficiently big that it didn’t matter.
His consideration to element, deep appreciation and understanding of Augusta Nationwide shines via, highlighting how is rarely to counted out.
In Houston, Scheffler despatched a warning to his rivals on the golf course.
On YouTube, he despatched one to them from off it.
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Not solely will their ball hanging, chipping and placing need to be on hearth to beat him, however they’re additionally going to need to out-think.
Which goes to be exhausting to do until they know the course higher.
And a few of the older former champions, who’re now not PGA Tour regulars like Mickelson, is likely to be the one ones that do.
That’s the reason Rory McIlroy has undertaken two scouting journeys to Augusta in latest weeks.
However Scheffler seems poised to make a mockery of Mickelson’s controversial feedback.
The psychological edge is clearly there, and so long as the great swing emotions persist, he’s set to be within the seek out the stretch.