Our newest Masters champion is one of many to represent the lonestar state.
Wanna win the Masters?
Move to Texas.
When Scottie Scheffler won the Masters Sunday in somewhat of a runaway (despite that mass of putts on 18), he became the ninth Texan to triumph at Augusta National.
Scheffler joined Jordan Spieth, Jackie Burke Jr., Charles Coody, Ben Crenshaw, Jimmy Demaret, Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and Ralph Guldahl as Texans in the green jacket club.
You might have had the experience of being around a Texan who thinks rather fondly of his or her home state. Everything is bigger in Texas, of course, and most things are better – the barbecue, the cowboy hats, the boots, the football, etc., etc.
Some Texans are relatively sedate, of course, but it’s also easy to run into one who can eat up most of an afternoon expounding on the Lone Star State and its Texas-size list of best things.
Scottie Scheffler will not be that person.
Scheffler (who was born in New Jersey) is sort of the opposite of vibrant and outgoing and over-the-top. He certainly was focused on what he was doing throughout the four rounds of the Masters, but he went about his work so methodically and generally without outward signs of emotion that you might have thought he was gliding along seeking second place in the third flight of his local club tournament.
It was epic focus, but it was generated not by an internet-age golden boy but by a regular Joe who is irregular only because he knows how to play golf really, really well. Really, really, really well.
In two months, Scheffler has won four tournaments, amassed winnings of almost $9 million and put his name on an honored list of players who have won on golf’s most revered landscape.
Scheffler is only 25 years old. The numbers he could stack up in major tournaments could become quite impressive. But it should be noted that many of us thought much the same about guys like Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Brooks Koepka and Spieth. At one point or another, all have been at the top of the world in pro golf (and each one could return), but none was able to stay there for a long ride.
Scheffler has all the tools necessary to be a force on the course for years. The golf world will be watching as he attempts to remain on a tear in the weeks and months to come. If he wins and/or performs well in the three majors on the road ahead, Scheffler will answer some of the questions about his potential role as a dominant player.
For now, it’s too early to anoint him as the Next Great Thing. Remember when Spieth was that?
But four wins and nine million bucks in two months? Those numbers turn heads even in Texas, where the folks in the oil and gas bidness (that’s “business” in Texas-speak) tend to stack $100 bills for a hobby. Now, so can Scheffler.
