Augusta (United States) (AFP) – A dramatic back-nine shootout loomed as Sunday’s final round of the Masters teed off at Augusta National with top-ranked Scottie Scheffler holding a one-stroke lead over two-time major winner Collin Morikawa.
The Americans were set to start in the final pairing at 2:35 pm (1835 GMT) with 2022 champion Scheffler seeking his second green jacket in three seasons and Morikawa chasing another major crown after the 2020 PGA Championship and 2021 British Open.
Scheffler, the oddsmakers’ top choice this week, could match Tiger Woods as the only players to win the Masters twice while ranked world number one.
Scheffler won his first three PGA Tour titles in the run-up to his 2022 Masters triumph, completing an epic two-month run, and had much the same success ahead of this year’s Masters, winning at Bay Hill and The Players Championship last month and was second by a stroke at the Houston Open two weeks ago.
“It’s nice to have that experience, but that’s really all that it is,” Scheffler said. “This is a position I’m very familiar with. I’m excited for the challenge of going and trying to win the golf tournament.”
But at the end of the day, it’s all about my process and trying to stay patient out there and hit all my shots and hit quality putts as well.
Morikawa captured the 2021 DP Tour World Championship at Dubai but since then his lone win came last October in Japan at the PGA Tour’s Zozo Championship.
Still, he knows what it takes to capture a major crown.
“Give yourself a chance with 18 holes left, that’s all you can really do and everything that you practice for,” Morikawa said. “It all comes together tomorrow hopefully, but it’s going to be a grind and I’m looking forward to that.”
In quest of a record $3.6 million top prize and their first major triumphs were American Max Homa, two adrift of Scheffler, and Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg, three off the pace in his first major appearance. Aberg could become the first player to win the Masters in his debut since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.
Bryson DeChambeau, the 2020 US Open champion, holed out from 77 yards at the 18th on Saturday to pull within four of the lead after 54 holes.
The only other major winner under par through 54 holes was Australian Cameron Smith, the 2022 British Open champion who like DeChambeau plays in the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League.
Eight of 13 LIV starters in the field of 89 made the cut to 60 for the weekend, including defending champion and world number three Jon Rahm of Spain, who began the last round 12 strokes back.
Also well out of the hunt were world number two Rory McIlroy, who needs only a Masters victory to complete a career grand slam, and 48-year-old Woods, whose 10-over 82 on Saturday was his worst-ever Masters round.
© 2024 AFP
