In the wake of the partnership announced between the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour, several of golf’s leading organizations released statements.

Augusta National Golf Club and Masters chairman Fred Ridley wrote Tuesday, “As we have expressed previously, what makes golf special is its rich history and ability to bring people together. We are encouraged by this announcement, which represents a positive development in bringing harmony to men’s professional golf.

“Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament are—and will remain—devoted to developing the game and celebrating its many virtues.”

LIV Golf members were allowed to play in last year’s Masters, and Ridley did not announce any future sanctions regarding players of the LIV Golf circuit regarding the tournament.

Ridley was named in LIV Golf’s antitrust complaint against the PGA Tour, with LIV players alleging Ridley discouraged players from jumping to the breakaway circuit. Additionally, Augusta National was part of the Department of Justice’s antitrust probe which was spurred by LIV Golf’s accusations against the golf ecosystem. As part of Tuesday’s surprise merger, both the tour and LIV said all pending litigation will come to an end.

R&A CEO Martin Slumbers noted: “We care deeply about golf’s future and are committed to ensuring that the sport continues to thrive for many years to come.”

A statement from The R&A on today's announcement by PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF. pic.twitter.com/Y9COPWZps5

— The R&A (@RandA) June 6, 2023

Mike Whan, the USGA CEO, interestingly acknowledged he first learned of the deal when it was announced Tuesday morning: “Like most of the golf world, we were surprised by today’s PGA Tour/DP World Tour/LIV Golf news. If this proposed consolidation can help resolve the conflicts in men’s professional golf and allows all parties to focus on the incredible interest, growth, and opportunities that exist within our global game, then it’s an important step forward. We look forward to learning more about how this new approach can further drive long-term growth in our wonderful game.”

The PGA of America also commented: “We were pleased, relieved and like others, surprised to learn this morning that the division within the men’s elite professional game appears to be on a pathway to resolution. While we look forward to learning further details in time, our actions will, as always, remain focused on delivering on our mission to serve PGA Professionals and grow the game. During this time of abundant opportunity in golf, we look forward to collaborating with other golf industry leaders to continue to advance our sport with our Members at the forefront of those efforts.”

Mollie Marcoux Samaan, LPGA commissioner, noted: “As we have consistently said, a fractured ecosystem is not good for the game and we look forward to learning what today’s announcement means for the growth and impact of global golf. We remain focused on growing the LPGA, continuing to work with the top partners in the world to provide the best opportunity for our membership and to make sure that everything we do continues to allow us to inspire, elevate and advance opportunities for girls and women, on and off the golf course.”

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On Masters Sunday, the name of Seve Ballesteros seemed to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue: It was the 40th anniversary of his second Masters win, it was Easter Sunday just like the first time he won in 1980, and, most poignant of all, it was his birthday. When Jon Rahm, a Spanish player, won the green jacket, it seemed to vindicate this numerology, and Rahm contributed to the almost religious atmosphere by dedicating his victory to Ballesteros, and declaring that he was “up there helping.” At the conclusion of his public speech, he said “rest in peace, Seve,” made the sign of the cross, and looked skyward.

It’s hard for me to put my emotions into words, but I want to thank everyone for supporting me. This one was for Seve. Having my family there made it even better. A dream come true! @TheMasters pic.twitter.com/LZ0JX41CIv

— Jon Rahm Rodriguez (@JonRahmpga) April 12, 2023

It was all reminiscent of the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah, when the European team, captained by Jose Maria Olazabal, overcame a massive deficit to win on the final day. That happened just over a year after the death of Ballesteros, and just like at this year’s Masters, his name was everywhere on that Sunday—including, quite literally, in the sky, where a hired plane wrote his name out for everyone to see. This concept that he might have had a posthumous influence on results is no glib tribute; it’s a fervent belief held by those who look up to him as a saint of the Spanish and European game. His stature is almost too enormous to quantify; as Ian Poulter once said, “Americans had Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, and before that Ben Hogan and Bobby Jones and others. For us Europeans, Seve is all of those people rolled into one.”

But Seve Ballesteros was no saint in life. He was, instead, someone who made enemies easily, particularly among his Ryder Cup opponents; who held grudges in an almost Jordan-esque fashion; who contributed to his own myth, in truth and in fiction; whose paranoia was so great, he slept with a .38 handgun under his pillow. Today, 12 years after his untimely death due to a brain tumour at age 54, it can be difficult to untangle the Ballesteros of reality with the mythic figure who continues to loom above European golf. The magic he possessed was no exaggeration, and it deservedly lives on, but nor is it the entire story. In today’s episode of Local Knowledge, we look at the legend of Seve Ballesteros, and the very real, very complex man from which that legend grew.

You can listen to the episode at the link below.

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When you win four majors in two years, as Brooks Koepka did between June 2017 and May 2019, you don’t have to worry about your reputation for performing under pressure. The proof is in the pudding — you can’t succeed that many times on the game’s biggest stages unless you’re clutch. That was Koepka’s life, and it helped his image that everything he did, from his game to his personality, spoke of a confidence bordering on aggression. He was the consummate killer, having filled the void left by Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth, and it didn’t seem at all unrealistic to argue about whether he might threaten 10 majors by the time his career was spent.

Things changed.

Or, more accurately, they were already changing even in the midst of this run. Here’s how Koepka has fared in the last six majors when he’s been somewhere near contention:

• 2019 Masters: Tied for the lead heading into 12, makes double bogey, plays 3 under the rest of the way but loses to Tiger by a shot.
• 2019 PGA Championship: Holds a seemingly insurmountable seven-shot lead on the field heading into the final round, reaches 13-under by the 10th hole, then falls off a cliff, making five bogeys in the last eight holes. Only Dustin Johnson’s equally rough pressure play down the stretch saves the day for Koepka, who nearly blew the biggest final round lead in major history.
• 2019 US Open: Fights to within a shot of Gary Woodland on the back nine, but plays the last seven holes in one-over, with no birdies, to lose by three.
• 2021 PGA Championship: Takes a one-shot lead over Phil Mickelson on the first hole on Sunday, immediately makes double-bogey, finishes with a 74, the second-worst score of anyone in the top 16, to lose by two.
• 2021 US Open: Shoots a respectable Sunday 69 to finish T-4, but was arguably never a real threat to Jon Rahm.
• 2023 Masters: Starts Sunday leading by four strokes, and the final round leading by two, shoots 75 — tied for the worst score among anyone in the top 33 — to lose by four.

Even with the lone win in that stretch, that’s clearly not the record of someone who plays his best golf under pressure, and I only list them all to illustrate how quickly things change in professional golf (and in Koepka’s case, how that change can get worse). When we think of someone who “chokes” — a harsh word, and not very accurate even in the best cases — what comes to mind are players who have never won a major. What’s harder to understand is that this particular phenomenon of choking can happen to anyone, including players who have previously won majors and been among the best pressure performers in the game.

Rory McIlroy. Christian Pietersen

McIlroy is the best possible parallel here. Like Koepka, he won four majors in a short span of time — in his case, just over three years, culminating in the two-major season of 2014. Like Koepka, his game (when healthy) has remained at the upper echelons of the sport, and like Koepka, he’s found himself in contention time and again. And like Koepka, he’s managed to lose in what seems like every conceivable way, and is no longer what anyone objective would consider a strong pressure performer in majors.

Spieth’s career has always been a little more chaotic, but he’s another near analogue — he wins three majors in just over two years, and while his game dipped for various mechanical reasons (unlike Koepka whose form seems to have been almost wholly the result of a serious injury), he too hasn’t been the same player under the gun. Spieth and McIlroy even seem to share the habit of making runs at majors late in the game when their surging momentum is exciting, but past the point at which they have anything beyond a faint hope of catching the leader. What Spieth accomplished Sunday Augusta mirrored Rory’s late race up the leaderboard a year earlier.

The “why” here can be hard to discern. Why, everything else being equal, could a player who has proven his chops under intense pressure suddenly lose his nerve? Could it be a conscious or subconscious retreat from the intensity of life at the top, as we seemed to witness with Rory in 2015 and 2016? Could it be — getting really theoretical — natural changes in human behaviour as we age into our late 20s, with our brains maturing to become more risk-averse but perhaps lose the warrior edge in the bargain? Could it be a single disastrous or near-disastrous result that sticks in the head, a la Koepka at the 2019 PGA?

Here, it’s instructive to look at the example of Tony Jacklin, the English golfer famous for his Ryder Cup captaincies who won the Open Championship in 1969 and became the first British golfer to win the US Open in decades in 1970. At the 1972 Open, though, a combination of bad luck (Lee Trevino chipping in from all over the course) and a ruinous three-putt at the 17th cost him more than just the Claret Jug — it cost him the ability to ever compete at a major again. “I was done after that,” he told James Corrigan of The Telegraph years later. “It knocked the stuffing out of me…something, I don’t know what, died inside me that day.”

Jacklin was 28.

There are appeals and drawbacks to each of these explanations, supporting and contradictory evidence, and whatever combination makes up the truth is not only beyond us, but probably beyond the players themselves. What we know for sure is that when the pressure bug strikes, it can last a long time. McIlroy has said several times that his current quest to win now feels like chasing his first major rather than his fifth. His victories can’t fortify him, because the failures are much closer in memory and resonate more when the pressure reaches a fever pitch. Time’s erosive effect on the pressure centers of the brain can be even quicker and harsher than the physical ravages, with the one consolation being that “clutch” is something you might be able to get back.

McIlroy hasn’t gotten it back yet. Neither has Spieth. Neither, clearly, has Koepka. These once-clutch players, among the best in their generation, are now mired in the struggle to find their best game when a major is on the line. They looked indomitable, just as players like Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm look indomitable today under similar circumstances. It could happen to them, too. In fact, it probably will happen to them. In this sport, at least, there is nothing constant in the character that makes you clutch for life. It may be an attribute you have for a little while, but consider it on loan from the universe; just as time steals distance, and strength, and endurance, it can also steal your nerve.

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All this and much, much more in the April 2023 edition of Golf Digest Middle East available in both English and Arabic.

The issue is again free to our loyal audience. You can scroll through the ISSUU link provided here or download to your favourite device for later. Alternatively, pick up a copy at your favourite club. Whatever option you take, we hope you enjoy the read.

See below for the sixth issue of the Arabic edition of Golf Digest Middle East.

If you want to look back at all our previous Arabic editions of Golf Digest Middle East, click here.

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The Masters, but louder? The later part of that sentence is what LIV Golf has used in most of its marketing over the past year, insisting that it’s league will be known for “golf, but louder.”

It’s a nod to its overall philosophy where its events often are accompanied by music, big flashy signage and champagne team celebrations for the winners at the end of the week. According to LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman, it may not be all that different next week at the Masters if a LIV player wins.

Norman told NewsCorp on Saturday that if one of the 18 LIV players invited to the Masters happens to win late Sunday, the other 17 will meet the victor for a celebration near Augusta National’s 18th green.

“If one of the guys, no matter who it is, they are all going to be there on the 18th green, they are all going to be there, and that just gives me goosebumps to think about,” Norman said. “When you walk up 18, your caddie hugs you then you see your wife or your mum and dad. Now, to have those 17 other guys there, that’s the spirit we want.”

Four-time major winner Brooks Koepka won the LIV Golf event this week at Orange County National outside Orlando, where Norman says green speeds were fast to help players prepare for what they may see next week. Koepka, fresh off his victory, will be part of the LIV contingent heading north, along with the likes of 2020 Masters champion Dustin Johnson, three-time Masters winner Phil Mickelson and Cam Smith, winner of last summer’s Open Championship at the Old Course.

Aside from the thought of one of his players winning a green jacket, Norman is excited about seeing some of his men play against the top players on the PGA Tour for the first time this year.

“I compliment the Masters on letting the players play because now they have got the best field and they are actually now the true Super Bowl,” Norman said. “But if I’m the Masters right now, I would want, on Sunday, DJ or Brooks or Cam, any of those guys against Rory [McIlroy] and Jon Rahm. Can you imagine what the TV ratings would be like?

“It’s what the people want. It’s what TV wants. The ratings will be far higher than any other ratings if you’ve got Rory playing any one of our top guys.”

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Jason Day didn’t see many of the shots Tiger Woods hit after the 15-time major champion walked onto the Augusta National range mid-afternoon Sunday for a practice session ahead of the 2023 Masters.

But former World No. 1 Day certainly heard them.

“It’s still got that Tiger sound; it’s a different noise,” Day told Golf Digest. Day hit balls next to Woods as the five-time Masters champion prepares to play just his second event of the year. Woods, 47, had a good showing during a made cut at his own Genesis Invitational at Riviera in February.

“Tiger is one of only a few players on tour who have their own sound, and it’s still got that power in it,” Day said. “You can hear in the strike that Tiger still has the speed; it wouldn’t surprise me if Tiger was in the top 20 or 30 players on the PGA Tour for clubhead and ball speed.”

During a 30-minute warm-up session Sunday, Woods hit a handful of wedge, short iron, fairway metal and driver shots. He appeared comfortable working the ball both ways with draws and fades. With the driver, Woods appeared to favour a draw. Woods, whose last major win came at Augusta National in 2019, now plays a schedule limited to the four majors and select PGA Tour events. Last year Woods made his return to golf at Augusta National following a 17-month absence due to injuries sustained in a 2021 car accident. He made his only cut of 2022 at Augusta.

This year will mark Woods’ 25th appearance in the Masters, with his debut coming as an amateur in 1995.

Day and Woods have long been friends. The pair had a conversation before Woods began his warm-up. Woods’ limp was noticeable, but he looked in good spirits as he stood with his caddie, Joe LaCava, and also close friend, Rob McNamara. Augusta National chairman, Fred Ridley, and PGA Tour pro, Billy Horschel, were among those who came up to greet Woods.

“I asked him about his [right] foot, and he said his foot was feeling good,” Day said. “It’s good to see him.”

Day also noticed Woods appeared taller, both as he walked onto the range and at address while hitting golf balls. “I said to him he looks taller, and he looks really in shape,” Day said. “Just with my injuries to my back and doing some elongation work, I am aware of that sort of stuff. Tiger just said he had been working on his posture.”

The conversation then moved onto both players’ children, and Woods told Day that 14-year-old son Charlie had prolonged Woods’ playing career.

“I was having a chat to him about Charlie and he said Charlie has kept him in the game a lot longer than if he didn’t have Charlie [playing junior golf],” Day said. “It’s good to see because it’s keeping him young and fired up to compete. As a father I can understand where he’s coming from.”

Day is making his own return to Augusta National thanks to moving into the top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking this spring after having missed out on invitation to the 2022 Masters. The Australian has four top-10s at Augusta, including a tie for second on debut in 2011 and two other top-five results.

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Ah yes, fretting about the Augusta weather forecast. A Masters tradition unlike any other. Unfortunately, it seems like those fears may be warranted.

Early reports for this week’s tournament do not look good. Not good at all. According to the Weather Channel, thunderstorms are expected in the Augusta area on Thursday, with Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday featuring plenty of rain.

By the way, did you know that weather percentage doesn’t indicate the chance of rain, but how much of the area will get rain? So it’s not a 61 per cent chance of rain Saturday, but that—according to meteorologists—there’s a 100 per cent chance that 61 per cent of the Augusta area will get rain. And if you already know this, well, forgive me, they never taught this in Ohio.

While the forecast looks ominous, it’s worth noting we go through this exercise nearly every year, and somehow the golf gods always give us a break at the last second. Plus, for all we know, the club could erect a dome before the weekend.

For those wondering, there have been five times in Masters history where the tournament finished on Monday. The last time it happened was in 1983.

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Tiger Woods’ first appearance in a regular PGA Tour event in nearly 850 days was eventful for a number of reasons. But one of the best things to come from the week at Riviera was a viral video that showed a 9-year-old heart transplant recipient, Madelyn Quinn, holding a poster behind the 17th hole, which grabbed the attention of Tiger’s caddie, Joe LaCava.

The poster, which you can see below, shows the No. 2 item on Madelyn’s bucket list was getting to meet Tiger. Even during competition, the laser-focused Tiger made his way over to Madelyn’s sign during his Saturday round and said hello to her, while checking off the box with a Sharpie himself. Just A-plus, heart-warming stuff.

Well, the story gets even better for Madelyn, as apparently the last item on her bucket list will now be checked off come April.

It sounds like CBS announcer and former tour pro Colt Knost, with his podcast co-host Drew Stoltz, connected an Augusta National member who heard about the story with Madelyn and her father, Greg, and invited the Quinns to the Masters this year, according to Barstool Sports’ Dan Rapaport.

“One of the members who heard the story insisted on getting a hold of me to offer tickets,” Greg told Barstool. “We are pumped!”

Add that check pic.twitter.com/mN9XrDu6XX

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 18, 2023

Just sensational stuff. Rapaport also outlines how going to Riviera on Saturday in the first place was a last-minute decision for the Quinn family once they realized Tiger would make the cut. This would lead to an interaction that made the rounds on social media—and has now led the Quinns to get one of the most coveted tickets in all of sports.

Kudos to LaCava and Tiger, to Knost and Stoltz and to the Augusta member for going out of their way to make this happen. These are the kinds of stories we all love.

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“I think it is very sad,” Garcia told The Telegraph at the Mayakoba resort ahead of LIV Golf’s season opener. “I think that we’ve done so many things together and had so many experiences that for him to throw that away just because I decided to go to a different tour, well, it doesn’t seem very mature — lacking maturity, really. But Rory’s got his own life, and he makes his own choices, the same way that I make mine. I respect his choices, but it seems like he doesn’t respect the ones I make.”

Golf Digest contacted McIlroy’s team on Thursday, but did not receive a response.

Last summer, Garcia left the PGA Tour, where he had won 11 times, for LIV Golf not long after a rules controversy in which he voiced frustration at an official at the Wells Fargo in May. “Can’t wait to leave this tour,” he said at the time. “Just a couple more weeks until I don’t have to deal with you anymore.”

Since Garcia’s departure, he and McIlroy have voiced frustrations with each other privately and publicly. In an interview last year with the Irish Independent, McIlroy said he had deleted Garcia’s number after Garcia messaged him during the Canadian Open “basically telling me to shut up about LIV”.

At the Dubai Desert Classic last month, McIlroy was asked if he would shake hands with Garcia, given Europe’s record points scorer could be picked by captain Luke Donald for the Ryder Cup later this year. McIlroy said: “No.”

The next time Garcia and McIlroy are expected to play in the same field will be the Masters at Augusta National in April. In December, Augusta National announced it would not ban any player from the tournament after many wondered if the Masters would alter the criteria to shut out LIV golfers.

Garcia, who won the Masters in 2017, is one of 17 LIV golfers invited to play the 2023 Masters, although Garcia’s victory means he has a lifetime exemption to the April major, as do Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson and Charl Schwartzel.

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By Stephen Hennessey
There was an awkward exchange in the media room ahead of the 2022 Masters, in which a European reporter stumbled over a question in which he asked Scottie Scheffler: “I’ve been asked a lot, like, what are you like? I have no idea other than you being a very, very good golfer.”

Scheffler politely laughed off the question, recommending the reporter ask his wife. During his prolific stretch of four wins in a six-event span, punctuated by his three-stroke victory at Augusta National, golf fans have gotten to know a little more about the world No. 1.

You know Scheffler is a gritty competitor on the course, but you still might not know too much more about him off the course. Leave it to us to tell you all about golf’s new superstar.

1. Scottie Scheffler grew up in Texas but lived in northern New Jersey until he was six years old.

Though he’s grown up in Texas most of his life, he’s got strong Jersey roots. His mother, Diane, was high-school classmates of the late actor James Gandolfini at Park Ridge High School. His father, Scott, attended St Cecilia’s High School in Englewood, New Jersey (where the legendary football coach Vince Lombardi was a gym teacher).

When Diane got a job as COO of a law firm in Dallas, the Schefflers moved.

The new Masters champion recalled hitting shots in his backyard when asked about his Jersey upbringing during Masters Week. Scheffler called himself a Bruce Springsteen fan thanks to his Jersey roots.

2. The Schefflers borrowed money to join Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas, mostly so that Scottie had a place to practice. He began working with his swing coach, Randy Smith, at age six.

Scheffler is still a member at Royal Oaks and plays most of his golf there while he’s home.

Smith, a mainstay on Golf Digest’s 50 Best Teachers ranking and coach to Justin Leonard, Colt Knost, Harrison Frazar and other tour pros through the years, recalls meeting Scheffler when he was “no more than 3ft tall.”

“I walked down, his parents were there and they introduced him,” Smith recalls, “and he took his hat off, shook my hand, then went back to hitting balls.”

3. Scheffler grew up dreaming of being able to hit on the side of the Royal Oaks range where the tour pros practiced. Now he does … watch the video below as we explore Scheffler’s life at home in a recent video.

Watch below:

Scheffler was short for his age until he hit a growth spurt his sophomore year of high school. He still loves basketball—telling Golf Digest in 2014 that it’s his favorite sport to watch on TV—and while shooting around, he once hit 30 3-pointers in a row.

He always knew, though, that golf was his sport. As he told our Keely Levins in 2018: “In high school, I narrowed it down to just basketball and golf. My whole life, I knew how much I loved golf. It was the one sport I always wanted to be playing, regardless of the season.”

4. Scheffler attended Highland Park High School in Dallas, the same high school where Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw and Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matt Stafford went (though Scheffler is younger than them).

Scheffler’s first PGA Tour win came on Super Bowl Sunday at the WM Phoenix Open — the same day when Stafford won his career-changing Super Bowl with the Rams.

5. In high school, Scheffler started dating his wife, Meredith, and they’ve been together ever since.

Meredith was new to Highland Park her sophomore year, and recalls sitting next to Scottie in a math class. They started dating as seniors.

In the above ‘At Home’ video we did with the Schefflers, Scottie calls Meredith his best friend. And she has clearly been a huge influence on him.

Ahead of the final round of the Masters, Scottie admitted that he was “crying like a baby” on Sunday morning, unsure if he could handle the pressure. It was Meredith who assured him to be himself and trust the game that got him in that position.

6. He won the US Junior Amateur and earned an invitation to play in his first PGA Tour event at age 17.

Among many amateur accomplishments, this was the biggest. Scheffler defeated current PGA Tour player Davis Riley, 3&2, at Martis Camp in Truckee, California.

7. In his first PGA Tour event as an amateur, he made a hole-in-one.

With the US Junior Amateur title, he received an exemption into the 2014 Byron Nelson Championship. The Dallas native made the cut — then aced the 221-yard second hole with a 5-iron. He carded three rounds in the 60s and finished T-22.

8. An esteemed collegiate career at the University of Texas set expectations high for Scheffler as he turned pro.

Scheffler won national Freshman of the Year honors after winning back-to-back events (the Big 12 Championship and Western Intercollegiate) and was named to the 2017 Ben Hogan award watch list.

9. It might be time for a car upgrade: Scheffler still drives the same car he had in college, a Chevy Suburban with more than 175,000 miles on it.

Scheffler’s father handed his old car to Scottie while he was in college. We’d guess he might splurge on a new ride, given all the cash he’s made this season.

10. Scheffler represented the US at the 2017 Walker Cup, as a part of a star-studded squad.

The team, which consisted of current PGA Tour pros Collin Morikawa, Will Zalatoris, Maverick McNealy, Cameron Champ, Doug Ghim and Doc Redman, crushed the Great Britain & Ireland team 19-7 at Los Angeles Country Club.

11. At the 2020 Northern Trust, Scheffler shot a 59 in the second round.

He became the 12th player to card a sub-60 round on the PGA Tour — and was the second youngest to do so.

Scottie Scheffler

12. Major championship success came early for Scheffler — even as an amateur.

He was the first-round leader at the 2016 US Open at Oakmont as a 19-year-old college sophomore, where his sister, Callie, caddied for him. Scheffler said that week: “I’m glad she was able to get the week off to come help me out. She’s a week into an internship, and she’s already asking for a week off. Hopefully she doesn’t get in trouble.”

13. Scheffler switched to a new putter ahead of his win at the WM Phoenix Open.

After a trip to the Scotty Cameron putting studio in California in the offseason, the Texan switched to a Cameron by Titleist Special Select Timeless Tourtype GSS — and went on to win his first tour event that week.

He also noticed the putter was slightly off the week of the Masters, so he asked Titleist tour reps to take a look. They noticed the loft and lie angles were significantly off—and so they tweaked the putter to Scottie’s liking the day before the Masters started.

14. In winning the Masters, Scheffler joined Ian Woosnam as the only players to win the Masters in their next start after becoming world No. 1.

Scheffler also joined Woosnam, Fred Couples, Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson as the only players to win the Masters while being world No. 1.

15. With first-place winnings of $2.7 million, Scheffler has now made more than $10 million in the 2021-22 season alone.

Of course, those are just on-course earnings. The endorsement opportunities will come quickly for Scheffler, who wears Nike apparel and just inked a deal with TaylorMade.

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