{"id":10538,"date":"2025-04-11T10:34:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T10:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/10538\/"},"modified":"2025-04-11T10:34:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T10:34:11","slug":"scottie-scheffler-ties-30-year-masters-record-with-effortless-start-in-bid-to-end-two-decade-jinx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/10538\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottie Scheffler ties 30-year Masters record with ‘effortless’ start in bid to end two-decade jinx"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nobody has won The Masters a year after putting on a Green Jacket since Tiger Woods in 2002.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But Scottie Scheffler<\/a> looks determined to change that after an imperious start to his tournament.<\/p>\n

\"Scheffler<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Scheffler is the man to beat on early formCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

The two-time champion hit a monster 62-yard putt to card his second birdie of the day on the par-three fourth and ignite his challenge for a third Green Jacket in four years. <\/p>\n

He hit the turn three-under — the joint-best score by a defending champion over the last 30 years.<\/p>\n

There have only been four other instances — and one of them was Scheffler himself.<\/p>\n

He also drained a 40-footer for birdie on 16 to move four-under.<\/p>\n

“Every time I watch Scottie Scheffler, it gives me Jokic<\/a> vibes. Both make it seem so effortless and will make an amazing shot & you\u2019ll get zero reaction out of them,” said one NBA<\/a> fan.<\/p>\n

“Congratulations Scottie Scheffler,” joked another, getting slightly ahead of themselves.<\/p>\n

Per golf statistician Justin Ray on X<\/a>, Scheffler gained three strokes putting — his best for a single round at Augusta.<\/p>\n

A missed birdie chance on the 18th saw Scheffler shoot a four-under 68 — his fourth straight opening round in the 60s.<\/p>\n

It placed him in a share for the clubhouse lead with Canadian Corey Conners, although Justin Rose<\/a> was looking strong after going six-under through 10 holes.<\/p>\n

“Anytime you can keep a card clean out here, it’s a really good thing,” he said after his round.<\/p>\n

\"Scheffler<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Scheffler and caddie Ted Scott celebrate a job well doneCredit: Getty\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

The world No.1 helps compatriot Justin Thomas look for his ballCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

“I struggled for what felt like two pars today. I had to make two really good up-and-downs.<\/p>\n

“But other than that, the golf course was in front of me most of the day, kept the ball in play, did a lot of really good things out there.”<\/p>\n

Scheffler is the betting favorite but honorary starters\u00a0Jack Nicklaus,\u00a0Gary Player\u00a0and Tom Watson all think it is finally Rory McIlroy<\/a>‘s year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s about time that Rory won and I sat down with him last week,\u201d Nicklaus said. \u201cI said \u2018I know you prepared for Augusta, tell me how you\u2019re going to play the golf course\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went through it shot for shot, we got done with the round, I didn\u2019t open my mouth and I said \u2018I wouldn\u2019t change a thing\u2019. That\u2019s exactly the way I would try to play the golf course.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe discipline to do that is what Rory has lacked in my opinion. He\u2019s got all the shots, he\u2019s got all the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe certainly is as talented as anybody in the game, but if you go back through his history in the last few years he gets to a place and all of a sudden a seven or an eight pops up and that keeps him from getting where he needs to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicklaus, Player, Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen and Woods<\/a> are the only players ever to complete a Grand Slam of all four Majors.<\/p>\n

McIlroy is one short and Player is desperate for him to get there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope he does, because it will give golf a great boost to have another winner of the Grand Slam,” he said.<\/p>\n

Footage captures Scottie Scheffler’s reaction to Min Woo Lee’s winning put<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nobody has won The Masters a year after putting on a Green Jacket since Tiger Woods in 2002.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[4285,2826,5259,7238,7240,7236,7239,4288,7237,7241,79,4297,4320,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-10538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-augusta-national","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-golf-majors","11":"tag-green-jacket","12":"tag-masters-champions","13":"tag-masters-leaderboard","14":"tag-masters-records","15":"tag-scottie-scheffler","16":"tag-scottie-scheffler-masters","17":"tag-scottie-scheffler-putt","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-the-masters","20":"tag-tiger-woods","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114318885994084063","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}