Scottie Scheffler Dominates, Wins First Leg of Grand Slam

On Sunday at the Masters, the world’s No. 1 ranked golfer, Scottie Scheffler, fulfilled all expectations, winning his second green jacket in just his fifth Masters start. That ties him as the second-fastest to win two Masters titles, and he is the fourth-youngest golfer with multiple green jackets.

Sunday Supremacy

Scheffler is a great iron player and an assassin around the green. But what makes him so good is that he is unflappable. Thursday at the Houston Open, or Sunday at the Masters, he looks the same. He plays the same. His emotions remain steady.

With Scheffler on the eighth hole, there was a collection of golfers at the top of the leaderboard – Scheffler, Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, and Ludvig Åberg.

Scheffler stayed steady, and at times was spectacular. He birdied the eighth, then hit his best shot of the tournament on the ninth, leading to another birdie. He made the turn at -8, while everyone else in the running was coming apart.

Morikawa double bogeyed the ninth and the 11th, knocking him from contention. Homa took a double bogey on 12, and his run at the title was done. Åberg double bogeyed the 11th, and his incredible run at the first major of his young career was over. Meanwhile Scheffler added birdies on 10, 13, 14, and 16.

When Scheffler drained his final putt on the 18th hole, he had the best final round score of the field, and his 72-hole score was four strokes better than anyone else.

Grand Slam Possibilities

Scheffler has three wins in his last four starts. He was dominant at the Masters, and if someone is going to win golf’s grand slam, it’s him. It’s not just that he won the first major of the season, which is an obvious requirement to win all four. He’s so much better than everyone else, that it doesn’t matter that he has yet to win any of the other three events.

In a month, we’ll have the second major of the season, the PGA Championship. Scheffler is an incredible +400 favorite to win at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville. It last hosted the PGA Championship in 2014, when Rory McIlroy won. He is +900 to win it again this year, which puts him second on the odds board. Last year, the tournament was held at the Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, and Scheffler finished T2.

The U.S. Open is the third major of the season, and two months out, Scheffler is again the huge betting favorite, paying +450. The event is scheduled for Pinehurst Resort and Country Club, which is another course Scheffler has never played.

Scheffler’s best finish at a U.S. Open came in 2022, when he finished T2.

The final major of the season is the Open Championship, which will be held at Royal Troon Golf Club in Scotland in July. Scheffler is the +600 favorite to win, putting him just ahead of Rory McIlroy at +900. Scheffler’s best finish at The Open came in 2021, his first time playing the event. At Royal St. George’s Golf Club in England, Scheffler was in the top-10 in all four rounds, eventually finishing T8.

If you want to bet now that he will win all three of the remaining majors, you’ll get +14000.

Only Bobby Jones won the grand slam in one calendar year. But that was in 1930, when the U.S. Amateur was in place of the Masters.

No one has won the modern grand slam. But Tiger Woods did win all four majors consecutively, winning the U.S. Open, Open Championship, and PGA Championship in 2000, and then winning the Masters in 2001.

Only five golfers in history have won the modern career grand slam: Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, and Gene Sarazen.