Despite the challenging wind in Augusta, Scottie Scheffler makes a promising start to the tournament. Scheffler won the Masters Tournament two years ago and was beaten by Jon Rahm last year. So far this season, Scottie Scheffler has delivered one top performance after another – expectations of the 27-year-old are correspondingly high. Scheffler withstood the pressure in round 1.
Bogey-free start to the 2024 Masters Tournament
The scorecard of your dreams: Scottie Scheffler was unimpressed by the course and the atmosphere at Augusta on the first day. Undeterred, the 2022 Masters champion played the first 18 holes in a joint flight with Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele. He made two birdies on the front nine: On the 2nd and 6th. Scheffler then ignited his turbo on the back nine. He conquered the infamous “Amen Corner” with two birdies and delivered two more birdies on holes 15 and 16. The American did not allow himself a single mistake and thus played the first bogey-free round of his still young career at the Masters Tournament. With a total of six strokes under par, he finished his round in second place, one stroke behind Bryson DeChambeau, who was leading at the time.
Scottie Scheffler about his round
Due to the weather conditions, Scheffler was just as surprised by his score as he was by Bryson DeChambeau’s good round (-7): “
When I was walking up to the first tee, I was fairly surprised with how many people were under par already. Going into today with the forecast the way it was supposed to be, and I’ve played this tournament once before in some pretty high winds, and it’s an extremely challenging golf course.
And, yeah, I felt like today I just did a really good job of — Teddy, I would say, did a really good job of kind of guessing the wind correctly, if that makes sense. You know, we stole a few shots on the par 3s, I felt like, and then I played the par 5s well.”
The fact that DeChambeau produced such a low score did not distract the world No. 1 from the essentials: “
Yeah, I wasn’t really thinking too much about my score out there. I mean, it’s the first day of the tournament. Like I said, I was just trying to hit good shots and stay patient out there. You cannot force yourself into making birdies around this golf course. It just doesn’t really lend itself to that, especially with the high winds.
And so, I mean, I saw that he shot 7-under, and I thought to myself, wow, that’s a really good round of golf, and I kind of put my head down and focused on what I was doing.”
The course at Augusta has a total of four par-3s. Scheffler scored birdies on three of them. After the round, Scheffler sums up his game on the par-3s despite the strong wind: “
Yeah, I felt like I definitely stole some shots there on the par 3s today. Like you said, you do have to take advantage of the par 5s out here. Most of them are reachable. So you definitely have to do your best to take advantage of those.
Today, yeah, definitely stole a couple shots there. All that’s going through my head is just trying to execute, and like it all really depends on the pin location and setup. Like No. 4 is a good example. The tee box was up today, and it’s a challenging pin, but I put myself in a good spot there under the hole.
Then No. 6, we got the wind right, and our goal was just challenging the top of the slope. And that’s exactly what we did, and it stayed up there on top and made a nice putt.
No. 12, hit a good shot, and doesn’t hit the green. That happens out here.
Scottie Scheffler’s bunker shot on No. 12 finds the hole for birdie. #themasters pic.twitter.com/urr9NMj8gV
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 11, 2024
16, we had a good wind direction and the pin was, you know, down low, which made that hole significantly easier, and was just able to hit a nice shot in there.”