AUGUSTA — Scottie Scheffler wasn't going to take his foot off the gas Sunday in the final round of the Masters Tournament.
Scheffler, the top-ranked player in the world and overwhelming betting favorite this week, had too many challengers too close behind his lead to slow down.
Three of them caught up to him after he made a couple of early bogeys, and the Masters looked destined to be a fireworks-filled sprint across the back nine at Augusta National Golf Club.
But Scheffler was so in control of his game, of his emotions and of the tournament itself that he didn't just regain the lead — he added to it to snuff out any potential comeback stories.
Scheffler continued his recent dominant stretch by making the back-nine charge the players behind him needed for themselves, piling on late birdies to surge to a four-shot victory over Ludvig Åberg for his second green jacket in only his fifth Masters start.
"It's hard to put into words how special this is," he said. "It's been a long week, a grind of a week. The golf course was so challenging, and to be sitting here wearing this jacket again and getting to take it home is extremely special."
Scheffler tried not to let his emotions get the best of him like they did during his win here in 2022. He agonized that Sunday morning over whether the moment, and the stage he had already reached in his career as a 25-year-old, was too big for him.
This week was different, although by the time Scheffler walked up the 18th fairway he was in the same position — he had played so much better than everyone else over the course of 71 holes that he had some wiggle room on the 72nd green.
This time, though, he only needed one putt.
"Yeah, I'm glad I brought my stroke average, my putting average down on 18," joked Scheffler, who four-putted it for double bogey two years ago. "That was nice. Down to, you know, five strokes, 2½ is my average, so that's not bad."
That speaks to how well he played all week, especially over his last 11 holes Sunday. That four-way tie for the lead was down to two just one hole later, then he had the lead to himself thanks to a run of three consecutive birdies as he made the turn.
The players chasing him were going to need him to make a mistake — but, by that time, they had already started to crumble.
Åberg, the Masters rookie from Sweden making his major championship debut, was undone by a double bogey on 11. Two-time major champion Collin Morikawa, playing with Scheffler in the final pairing, went from tied to six back after making two doubles in a three-hole stretch. Max Homa fell apart on the 12th hole, making a double of his own to fall three back.
Scheffler, meanwhile, kept swinging freely and birdied six of nine holes to stretch his lead to four with two holes to play.
"If I was just trying to make pars the whole back nine, I would have been standing on 18 having to make par and hoping Ludvig would only make a par," he explained. "Around this golf course you have to stay aggressive. You have to hit the right shots. There's no way around it out here. You can't play too defensive, and you can't play too aggressive. You just have to hit the right shots. And fortunately today I was able to do that."
He nearly holed out for eagle on the par-4 ninth, his lob-wedge approach landing behind the hole and spinning back to 6 inches. He threw another dart at the 10th green, hitting a pitching wedge from 146 yards to inside of 10 feet. That put him at 9 under, a mark no one else this week would reach.
Åberg (69) was alone in second at 4 under, while Homa (73), Morikawa (74) and Tommy Fleetwood (69) tied for third.
The turning point for Scheffler came on the par-5 eighth hole. That's where the birdie binge began, and it helped offset bogeys on 4 and 7 that led to that logjam atop the leaderboard.
"The most important shot? I would say the best momentum turner that I had today was the birdie putt on 8," he said. "…I poured that one in. Then kind of gave me some good momentum, and I used that to birdie 9 and 10 and keep pushing because I knew there was birdies out there on back nine. I had a lot of really talented players trying to chase me down, and I knew pars weren't going to get it done."
As such, those really talented players had to start pressing — because Scheffler made it clear he wasn't going to come back to them.
"I mean, everything," Morikawa said of what makes Scheffler hard to overtake. "He drives the ball plenty, plenty long, well past me. Hits his irons obviously spectacular. Keeps it simple. Makes the putts when he needs to. If he doesn't, still has plenty of chances. And just never put himself in trouble."
From that point, it was then only a matter of how large the margin of victory might become. Scheffler said he kept his head down as he walked up 18, not wanting to duplicate his previous stumble across the finish line.
The end result may look the same, but Scheffler said how he got there was different. He felt like he battled all week against a difficult golf course in a variety of challenging conditions, as opposed to building a comfy lead early in the tournament and playing comfortably from there.
He pointed to his short game as the most vital aspect of his game this week. He finished third in the field in total putting, an area that used to disappoint in comparison to his world-class ball-striking, and he converted several key up-and-downs throughout the week.
He has yet to finish outside of the top 20 in his Masters career, and he also came into this week riding a hot streak of two wins in three starts — with the third being a tie for second.
Now it's three of the last four, his grip on the No. 1 spot in the world rankings strengthened by a victory in the year's first major.
"I think it's hard to argue with the results of the last few weeks," he said. "I've been playing some nice golf. But I really try to not focus too much on the past. I'm going to go home this week and reflect on this week and soak it in as best I can."
He credited his wife Meredith with helping him get his emotions in check two years ago, but she wasn't here this week — she was back home in Texas awaiting the birth of their first child, so Scheffler instead relied on his faith and some buddies he invited to the house for the week to keep his mind anywhere but on golf during the hours ahead of Sunday's final tee time.
But, just like last time, it was well worth the wait.
