Apr. 9—AUGUSTA — Scottie Scheffler found a moment to laugh Tuesday afternoon at Augusta National Golf Club.
His Masters Tournament preparation was finished for the day, and soon to begin was his prep as host of the Masters Club dinner as defending champion.
One menu item stood out among the rest — Papa Scheff’s meatball and ravioli bites, complete with Pecorino cheese and a tomato basil sauce.
Ravioli has been all that’s stood between the top-ranked player in the world and the type of early-season success he’s used to enjoying on his route to Augusta National. He sliced open his hand while using a wine glass to cut ravioli for Christmas dinner, requiring surgery and forcing him to delay his season debut to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at the beginning of February.
No hands were harmed during Tuesday night’s dinner, though beforehand Scheffler joked about the potential dangers that could await.
“In terms of if I was trying to take out the competition, I would definitely do a demonstration, something along those lines,” he said with a laugh. “But yeah, hopefully avoid the injuries. Maybe they’ll cut up my steak for me, I won’t have to use a knife or anything like that. We’ll see.”
And now it’s all business at Augusta National, where Scheffler looks to defend his title. The betting favorite to win this week, with a victory Scheffler would join Jack Nicklaus (1965-66), Nick Faldo (1989-90) and Tiger Woods (2001-02) as the only back-to-back champs, and he would match Nicklaus’ (1963-66) lofty mark of winning three green jackets in a four-year span.
Still, he doesn’t view his status as defending champion — or the fact that he’s never finished outside of the top 20 in five career starts here — as any type of advantage heading into the opening round.
“I mean, at the end of the day, when I tee it up on Thursday, I start the tournament even par just like everybody else,” he explained. “Last year doesn’t have a lot to do with this year, outside of I can go back on some of the experience that I’ve had playing well on this golf course and reflect on that.
“Let’s say I get off to a bad start on Thursday, and I can use some stuff that I’ve done here the past few years as confidence to kind of turn things around. But at the end of the day, when I step on there on Thursday, we’re at even par, and it’s a totally new golf tournament. Last year means nothing.”
Scheffler has yet to win this season, though he’s been close with a tie for third at the Genesis Invitational and a tie for second two weeks ago at the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
The player with the hottest hand coming into the week is world No. 2 Rory McIlroy, with wins under his belt already at Pebble Beach and TPC Sawgrass as he’s bounced back from last year’s disappointing U.S. Open loss to Bryson DeChambeau to play some of the best golf of his storied career.
So is it now time for McIlroy to complete the career Grand Slam? The Masters is the only major to elude him, and this will be his 11th crack at it since winning the 2014 PGA Championship. The pressure on McIlroy is already immense as one of the game’s all-time greats, not to mention his status as unofficial PGA Tour spokesperson once the defections to LIV Golf began, but is there even more now that it looks like it could finally be his year at Augusta National?
“No. It’s just narratives. It’s noise. It’s just trying to block out that noise as much as possible,” he said. “I need to treat this tournament like all the other tournaments that I play throughout the year. Look, I understand the narrative and the noise, and there’s a lot of anticipation and buildup coming into this tournament each and every year, but I just have to keep my head down and focus on my job.”
There are contenders throughout the field of 95, the largest in a decade at the Masters. The world’s best are all here, and top-ranked names like McIlroy, No. 5 Ludvig Åberg and No. 9 Viktor Hovland have won in the past two months, and others like No. 3 Xander Schauffele and No. 4 Collin Morikawa, like Scheffler, have yet to win this season but have proven their mettle in major championships.
Missing from Augusta National this year are countless trees after the area was ravaged by Hurricane Helene, creating new challenges for the players in terms of shot angles and wind direction. Also missing is five-time champion Tiger Woods, who’s not in the field for the first time since 2021 after having surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon.
Surgery only delayed, didn’t derail, the start to Scheffler’s season. The rest of the field will soon give chase at Augusta National, where he insists he’s at 100% even if the pollen has him sounding a little stuffy.
“Yeah, I’m feeling good, ready to roll. Sniffles aren’t going to stop me,” he joked.
AUGUSTA — Scottie Scheffler found a moment to laugh Tuesday afternoon at Augusta National Golf Club.
His Masters Tournament preparation was finished for the day, and soon to begin was his prep as host of the Masters Club dinner as defending champion.
One menu item stood out among the rest – Papa Scheff’s meatball and ravioli bites, complete with Pecorino cheese and a tomato basil sauce.
Ravioli has been all that’s stood between the top-ranked player in the world and the type of early-season success he’s used to enjoying on his route to Augusta National. He sliced open his hand while using a wine glass to cut ravioli for Christmas dinner, requiring surgery and forcing him to delay his season debut to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at the beginning of February.
No hands were harmed during Tuesday night’s dinner, though beforehand Scheffler joked about the potential dangers that could await.
“In terms of if I was trying to take out the competition, I would definitely do a demonstration, something along those lines,” he said with a laugh. “But yeah, hopefully avoid the injuries. Maybe they’ll cut up my steak for me, I won’t have to use a knife or anything like that. We’ll see.”
And now it’s all business at Augusta National, where Scheffler looks to defend his title. The betting favorite to win this week, with a victory Scheffler would join Jack Nicklaus (1965-66), Nick Faldo (1989-90) and Tiger Woods (2001-02) as the only back-to-back champs, and he would match Nicklaus’ (1963-66) lofty mark of winning three green jackets in a four-year span.
Still, he doesn’t view his status as defending champion – or the fact that he’s never finished outside of the top 20 in five career starts here – as any type of advantage heading into the opening round.
“I mean, at the end of the day, when I tee it up on Thursday, I start the tournament even par just like everybody else,” he explained. “Last year doesn’t have a lot to do with this year, outside of I can go back on some of the experience that I’ve had playing well on this golf course and reflect on that.
“Let’s say I get off to a bad start on Thursday, and I can use some stuff that I’ve done here the past few years as confidence to kind of turn things around. But at the end of the day, when I step on there on Thursday, we’re at even par, and it’s a totally new golf tournament. Last year means nothing.”
Scheffler has yet to win this season, though he’s been close with a tie for third at the Genesis Invitational and a tie for second two weeks ago at the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
The player with the hottest hand coming into the week is world No. 2 Rory McIlroy, with wins under his belt already at Pebble Beach and TPC Sawgrass as he’s bounced back from last year’s disappointing U.S. Open loss to Bryson DeChambeau to play some of the best golf of his storied career.
So is it now time for McIlroy to complete the career Grand Slam? The Masters is the only major to elude him, and this will be his 11th crack at it since winning the 2014 PGA Championship. The pressure on McIlroy is already immense as one of the game’s all-time greats, not to mention his status as unofficial PGA Tour spokesperson once the defections to LIV Golf began, but is there even more now that it looks like it could finally be his year at Augusta National?
“No. It’s just narratives. It’s noise. It’s just trying to block out that noise as much as possible,” he said. “I need to treat this tournament like all the other tournaments that I play throughout the year. Look, I understand the narrative and the noise, and there’s a lot of anticipation and buildup coming into this tournament each and every year, but I just have to keep my head down and focus on my job.”
There are contenders throughout the field of 95, the largest in a decade at the Masters. The world’s best are all here, and top-ranked names like McIlroy, No. 5 Ludvig Åberg and No. 9 Viktor Hovland have won in the past two months, and others like No. 3 Xander Schauffele and No. 4 Collin Morikawa, like Scheffler, have yet to win this season but have proven their mettle in major championships.
Missing from Augusta National this year are countless trees after the area was ravaged by Hurricane Helene, creating new challenges for the players in terms of shot angles and wind direction. Also missing is five-time champion Tiger Woods, who’s not in the field for the first time since 2021 after having surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon.
Surgery only delayed, didn’t derail, the start to Scheffler’s season. The rest of the field will soon give chase at Augusta National, where he insists he’s at 100% even if the pollen has him sounding a little stuffy.
“Yeah, I’m feeling good, ready to roll. Sniffles aren’t going to stop me,” he joked.
