Scottie Scheffler and Cameron Smith, the two hottest players in 2022, set for a Sunday showdown at the Masters with the Green Jacket at stake
Momentum is a fickle thing in golf. A player can look unbeatable and lift a trophy one week, only to miss the cut the next. Perfectly played shots are easily followed by confounding shots. It’s a rare thing in the life of a PGA Tour professional to get on a hot streak and stay that way for a prolonged stretch of time.
Scottie Scheffler and Cameron Smith appear to have solved the puzzle that has left many before them scratching their heads. They arrived at the 86th Masters as the two hottest players on the planet; through three rounds at Augusta National, they’ve again been the two best players, their names at the top of the leaderboard heading into Sunday where they will be grouped together in the final round.
It would be hard to argue that a Green Jacket for either of them came as much of a surprise. Scheffler is World No. 1, his meteoric rise to the top of the golf world culminating this week as he’ll take a three-shot lead into Sunday. Two months ago, the 25-year-old had never won on the PGA Tour and was outside the top-10 in the world rankings. That all changed when he won the WM Phoenix Open. Three weeks later he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill amid dreadful scoring conditions. His last start before the Masters came at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play; he won that too, making it three wins in a span of five starts.
The Aussie Smith, Scheffler’s closest chaser at six-under, was better known at the start of 2022 for his flowing mullet rather than anything on his trophy case. Then, in January, he set a PGA Tour record by shooting 34-under at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Like Scheffler, his last start was also a triumphant one. Last month, Smith made 10 birdies in the final round at TPC Sawgrass to win the Players Championship.
They’re both multi-time champions on the PGA Tour this year. They’re both ranked in the top six in the world. Smith leads the tour in birdies per round; Scheffler is fifth. Smith is second in Total Strokes Gained, while Scheffler is eighth.
Scheffler and Smith will be hard to catch for the rest of the Masters field
The Masters title would be a fitting end to a tremendous stretch of golf for both of them. Not only do they have the talent to win, but they also have the temperament. During the third round on Saturday, Scheffler seemed to be making the Masters his coronation. He took a six-shot lead into the back-nine before three bogeys over a span of four holes. But the Texan wasn’t deterred; he hit his approach on the 17th to five feet for one of only five birdies on that difficult hole the entire round.
His best shot, though, may have been on a hole he didn’t birdie. His wayward drive on the 18th hooked to the left and settled under a tree. Forced to take an unplayable lie, Scheffler was now on his third shot and still more than 250 yards from the green. On a batch of pine straw, he took out an iron and rifled a shot just over the green where he was able to salvage a bogey and finish at nine-under.
Smith, meanwhile, displayed his propensity for running off a long string of birdies. He birdied the sixth and the eighth holes. Then he birdied the 10th and both back-nine par-fives, going five-under over a span of ten holes. His four-under 68 on Saturday was the best of anyone in the field by two shots.
“Should be a great fight tomorrow. Obviously, Cam is a tremendous player,” Scheffler said. “Both of us are in good form, so I’m definitely looking forward to the challenge of playing with him tomorrow.”
They’ve both learned how to win so far this year and proven to themselves that they can compete with the game’s best. Scheffler’s powerful drives and Smith’s delicate short game make each of them dangerous in their own way. Scheffler has proven it three times in the last two months; Smith showed it at the Players.
“It just means I can get it done, I guess, when I’m up against the best guys in the world. It’s a good feeling to have. It’s earned. It’s not given to you,” Smith said. “So I’m going to have to go out there tomorrow and play really good golf again, probably similar to today. Hopefully, everything just falls into place.”
There will be other competitors playing Augusta National on Sunday. Many eyes will still be on Tiger Woods as he plays the last round of his miraculous comeback. But the Masters will likely be decided in that final group, in a battle between two men who for months have seemed like they were playing a different game than everyone else.
It will end with one of them wearing green and taking his well-deserved place in the pantheon of major champions.
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