Scottie Scheffler Believes A Decision Cost Him The Masters

With the Masters Tournament wrapped up for 2026, players are now taking the time to reflect on their game during the weekend.  A good portion are looking back and seeing what they could have done differently.  Others are also looking at the field conditions and seeing how the weather and the soil have given them a disadvantage.  This group includes Scottie Scheffler.

Scottie Scheffler At The Masters

During the Masters, Scottie Scheffler was actually playing really well.  Previously, Scheffler was seen as being in a struggling period.  After a strong start to the season, winning back-to-back tournaments, he found himself outside of the top twenty in the weeks leading up to his wife giving birth.  This past weekend, Scheffler finished 2nd while also breaking another record.  That record is the first Masters player to go bogey-free in consecutive rounds since 1942.  Not bad for someone who was going through a rough patch in his career.

Scheffler On The Augusta National

Looking at his performance, Scheffler has pointed to two factors that led to him falling one point behind the now two-time winner, Rory McIlroy.  On Thursday, the wind was a factor that held him back, by only a little.  The biggest thing was how soft the course was on Friday.  What happened was that the Augusta National had the fields watered ahead of Scheffler’s group.  Going into the tournament, players were expecting a good, firm field given how the weather was.  However, the watering softened it up.  Scheffler went into detail in an interview with Golf.com.

“I’m not in charge of course setup,” Scheffler said. “I would have liked it to have been a little bit more equal in terms of the firmness on Thursday and Friday. I was a bit surprised at how soft things were on Friday afternoon, especially as it got late in the day.  But the weather also changes, and it was a bit windy on Thursday, so who knows. That’s part of the game. We play an outdoor sport, and you don’t know how conditions are going to change, especially course conditions.”

Scheffler points towards his 74-point score on Friday as the reason he fell behind in the tournament.  That round left him with a 12-point deficit against McIlroy, a gap that Scheffler struggled to close.  However, he did close that gap by a wide margin, turning it into a 1-point deficit.

Wrapping Up The Masters

Looking back at his score, Scheffler remains positive and a bit proud of himself.  He’s still disappointed that he lost the tournament, but he also closed a large point gap.  The course conditions weren’t ideal for him on Friday, and it set him back, but he still managed to break a club record.  The slump that everyone was talking about less than a month ago might be gone now with this top 5 finish.  There are still majors coming up this year.  Right now, Scheffler is still one win from completing a career grand slam.  Now he just needs to bring this energy into the US Open.