It is remarkable to think now that Scottie Scheffler only made his debut at The Masters in 2020, with the world number one already winning the green jacket on two occasions.
Scottie Scheffler has an incredible record at The Masters. As well as his victories in 2022 and 2024, the 28-year-old has never finished outside of the top 20 at Augusta National. He has been inside the top 10 in each of the last four years.
So it is fair to say that Augusta has consistently been a happy hunting ground for Scheffler in the early stages of his career.
And those notable memories began when Scheffler made his first appearance at the tournament in 2020, as he found himself in the same group as Tiger Woods for the final round.
Scottie Scheffler once commented on playing alongside Tiger Woods on his debut appearance at The Masters
Woods, of course, was the defending champion that week following his incredible fifth victory at Augusta National the previous year.
Heading into the final round, he found himself three shots off the top 10. However, Woods would end up finishing in a tie for 38th, with much of the damage being done on the iconic 12th hole.
Woods hit his highest score on one hole at The Masters as he made a 10 on the par three. He put three balls in Rae’s Creek.
What followed next was almost just as remarkable. Woods made five birdies in his final six holes to gain most of those strokes back.
And speaking on the No Laying Up Podcast in 2020, Scheffler explained what the experience of playing alongside Woods was like, including what he was thinking as the 15-time major champion had his nightmare on Amen Corner.
“It was wild, it was so wild. Because I’d seen him hit balls before, and I’ve watched countless hours of that guy on YouTube. Watching him in person was eye-opening, and it was kind of weird. I was driving to the golf course, and it’s Covid year, it’s the Covid Masters, and I’m driving to the course on Sunday and this is just an experience I’ll never, ever forget: playing with Tiger, Sunday at The Masters, Covid year, with no fans. It was awesome. Watching that guy hit the golf ball, I mean he hits it so solid and so precise, it is really cool to watch. It was awesome,” he said.
“So I usually watch the guys in my group play anyway, and so, I would just kind of do the same thing just because I’m trying to pay attention to stuff like that as well, just to see if I can pick anything up with the wind and how firm the green is. For me, I’m usually paying attention to what’s going on around me. Playing with Tiger, it was natural for me to watch. I did pay a lot closer attention to him than I usually do my other playing competitors. It was really cool to see how he prepares for each shot, how focused he is. And when he made the 10, that was crazy. That was wild.
“So he makes the 10. When he makes the 10, I’ve actually hit it in the water too. And so, we’re both going up to the creek, figuring out where we’re going to drop. He ended up dropping his ball a little further back than I did, and I see him spin the first one in the water. I was like, ‘wow’. The green’s soft, and so I hit mine up on the green. And then, I didn’t see his next shot go over, but he’s standing in the bunker and he’s got that awful stance, can barely stand where his ball is. And me and Shane [Lowry] are standing there, and I think to myself, man, he could easily hit this thing in the water. And sure enough, he caught it a hair thin and it went right in the water. The next one he chunked out. We’re just kind of sitting there in shock. I didn’t know what to think.
“Then all of a sudden, he flipped the switch and he didn’t miss many iron shots after that. He missed one on 14 about seven feet right of the pin. But other than that, he hit one of the most spectacular shots that I’ve ever seen in my life on 16, just because of the way the wind was swirling. We get on the tee box and we’ve got 175 pin, the wind is blowing 10 different directions on the tee box, you have no idea where the wind is blowing. And he hits this little, chip-punch-cut seven iron, and the wind had no chance to touch this golf ball. It landed about a foot from the pin and just stayed there.
“It was kind of cool to see Tiger struggle like he did at the beginning of the round, and just see Tiger pretty close, I would say, to his best to birdie five of the last six at Augusta. That was pretty cool.”
How Tiger Woods reacted to making a 10 on the 12th hole at Augusta National
Unfortunately, there have been a few instances where Woods has failed to break 76 in the years since.
He posted two rounds of 78 over the weekend during the 2022 Masters – the first Scheffler won – while he shot 82 and 77 over the last two rounds last year.
Back in 2020 meanwhile, Woods was able to look at the bigger picture when assessing what had happened on the 12th hole of his final round.
“That’s part of our sport,” he said, as reported by ESPN. “This sport is awfully lonely sometimes. You have to fight it. No one is going to bring you off the mound or call in a sub. You have to fight through it. That’s what makes this game so unique and so difficult mentally. We’ve all been there, unfortunately. I’ve been there and you just have to figure out the next shot, and I was able to do that coming home.”
Scheffler’s worst score in 24 rounds at Augusta National is currently 75. And the consistency he has shown suggests that he is going to have a good chance of closing in on Woods’ tally of five wins.
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