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The final results for the 2022 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia are in. Scottie Scheffler won with a comfortable margin of three shots over runner-up Rory McIlroy.
This is Scheffler’s first major championship win and 4th PGA Tour win, continuing a hot streak that started at the 2022 Waste Management Phoenix Open. It extends his lead at No. 1 in the OWGR.
Leaderboard
Below is the truncated top 10 leaderboard:
- (1) Scottie Scheffler (-10)
- (2) Rory McIlroy (-7)
- (T3) Shane Lowry (-5)
- (T3) Cameron Smith (-5)
- (5) Colin Morikawa (-4)
- (T6) Will Zalatoris (-3)
- (T6) Corey Conners (-3)
- (T8) Justin Thomas (-1)
- (T8) Sungjae Im (-1)
- (T10) Cameron Champ (E)
- (T10) Charl Schwartzel (E)
For the full leaderboard, go here.
Analysis & Statistics
Here is some of my analysis on the champion and other notables near the top of the leaderboard:
Winner: Scottie Scheffler (-10)
I’m betting not many people had heard of Scheffler before 2022. It turns out he was building some good finishes in tournaments in 2021 including at the Hero World Challenge and World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, where he finished in the top 5.
Since bursting onto the scene with his first PGA Tour win at the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February, this guy has played an incredible stretch of golf reminiscent of Tiger Woods’ dominant prime.
With the Masters win, he has now won four times in the 2021-2022 season, his last six finishes being 1, T7, 1, T55, 1 and 1. That is awfully impressive. And he now has a healthy lead in the Official World Golf Ranking.
How has Scheffler performed in past Masters? T19 in 2020 and T18 in 2021, which is pretty great by anyone’s standards.
While I think he’s going to be a tough competitor moving forward, one thing that gave me pause this week was the way he four-putted the last hole. You could say that he “choked”. In a way, it’s understandable because he was about to win his first major, but on the other hand, it suggests that he might not have the nerve to handle the spotlight.
The question to ask about Scheffler is this: is he a flash in the pan that is going to fade out of the conversation once his hot streak ends? Or is he going to play consistent, dominant golf for years to come? Only time will tell.
Scoring
In Round 4, Scheffler made four birdies, one bogey, and one double bogey to shoot a 1-under 71. This was the highest score he shot all week.
Scores in regulation: 69, 67, 71, 71 (278)
Runner-Up (-7)
This is the closest McIlroy has ever come to winning the Masters, which would complete his career grand slam of winning all four major championships.
McIlroy played a phenomenal round of golf on Sunday, shooting an 8-under 64 with 6 birdies and one eagle. On the 18th, he holed out from the bunker for birdie in dramatic fashion. This really should have sealed the deal for him, but Scheffler was just too far ahead.
McIlroy missed the cut at last year’s Masters but finished T5 in 2020. He missed the cut at the Valero Texas Open the week before and didn’t seem to be in particularly good form coming into the tournament.
One other thing I want to note are a couple players that have consistently placed high finishes at the Masters in the past few years including Corey Conners (T10 in 2020, T8 in 2021, T6 in 2022) and Will Zalatoris (2 in 2021, T6 in 2022). There’s something about Augusta that brings out the best of many, year after year.
A Note On Tiger
To be quite honest, I expected Tiger to play better than he did this week. Yes, I know he received an awful compound fracture in his right leg, but this far along in the recovery, I didn’t think it would be so much of a hindrance.
I figured that if Tiger thought he could win (as he said at his pre-tournament presser), he would be in contention. After all, he always seems to grind out a good score at Augusta.
This year, though, he shot two 78s on the weekend which is his worst score ever at the tournament.
It turns out that the blustery weather and chilly temperatures were a large part of what did him in. The unusually low temperatures made his back stiffer and interfered with his ability to rotate through the ball.
As I said in 2020, I don’t believe Tiger can practice or play nearly enough to achieve the consistency that he had in his prime. But I do think that, because he keeps himself in such great shape, he can eventually regain much of the consistency that he once had.
I believe that as Tiger continues the recovery of his right leg and builds strength and endurance, we’re going to see better and better finishes from him. I’m very much looking forward to see how he plays at the other majors this year, especially St. Andrews.
Have any congratulations for Scottie, or any other thoughts about this year’s Masters? Go ahead and leave a comment below.
Featured image credit: Torrey Wiley (flickr)