On Sunday morning, Scottie Scheffler led the Masters by one stroke over Collin Morikawa, and Max Homa and Ludvig Aberg were a further two and three strokes back, respectively. By the time the final group left the seventh green, all four were tied at six-under, and one hole later, all but Homa had made it to seven-under.
After that, Scheffler began to take control, with three straight birdies from Holes 8-10 to take a two-stroke lead. Despite a bogey on 11, he managed to play the back nine in three-under par thanks to birdies on 13, 14, and 16. Scheffler wound up winning eleven-under by four strokes over a Masters rookie who was also making his first start in a major championship.
Positives Outweigh the Negatives
Aberg finished in solo-second at seven-under after an even-par back nine. Still, he realistically fell out of contention after a double bogey on Hole 11 after he hit his ball into the water with his second shot. Still, the tournament was very successful for Aberg, who became the first Masters rookie to finish second in the Masters since Will Zalatoris in 2021.
Behind Aberg was a three-way tie for third between Homa, Morikawa, and Tommy Fleetwood at four-under. Morikawa fell behind on Hole 9, where he had a double bogey after putting his tee shot into the woods and needing two shots to get out of a greenside bunker. He had another double bogey on 11 after putting his second shot into the same pond that Aberg did.
Homa shot a one-over 73 and fell back after a double bogey on Hole 12, where he hit his tee shot over the green and had to take an unplayable penalty. Fleetwood shot a bogey-free 69 to get into the tie for third place, and out of the last six groups, only Aberg and Scheffler could tie or better him.
Cameron Smith and Bryson DeChambeau tied for sixth place at two-under, and Smith was one of only three players to shoot par or better in all four rounds this week (Scheffler and Fleetwood were the others). DeChambeau fell back after his 65 on Thursday, which ended up being his best round of the week, but it was still a productive four days for him on Sunday.
Xander Schauffele finished solo eighth at one-under, the final player to be under par for the week. Schauffele hung between three-under and even-par all day and ended up at one-under after a bogey on Hole 18.
Early in the morning, Tom Kim shot a 66, which was the round of the day, and he went from starting the day at eleven-over to five-over and tied for 30th. Additionally, amateur Neal Shipley, who played with Tiger Woods, won the low amateur medal at twelve-over.
Tiger Goes the Distance
Woods entered the final day's play at eleven-over after an 82 on Saturday. On Sunday, he shot a 77 to finish at sixteen-over and solo-60th, last out of all the players who made Friday's cut. However, it was still somewhat of a win for Woods, as he completed 72 holes in a tournament for the first time since the 2023 Genesis Invitational, over 13 months ago.
Cover image courtesy of USA Today