AUGUSTA, Ga.AUGUSTA, Ga. — It’s not exactly making the cut at the Masters at age 46 barely a year after a horrific car accident required pins, rods, screws and who knows what other metal objects to surgically repair your crumpled right leg, as Tiger Woods did Friday in 30 mph wind gusts at Augusta National.
But Scottie Scheffler did once win a state high school golf title on a sprained or broken left ankle, he’s not sure which.
It was a week before the Texas state tournament in 2013, and Scheffler was playing basketball outdoors with some buddies and stepped on … an acorn?
“My buddies will still make fun of me to this day because of it,” said the 6-foot-3 Scheffler, who also played basketball at Highland Park High. “I stepped on an acorn. (But) they were freaking out. They’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, we heard a pop, we heard a pop.’ And I was like, ‘My ankle isn’t broken,’ but it definitely was stinging for a while. I just played all week with my (left) foot turned out to the side and just kind of grinded it out, I guess.”
He shot a 66 in the second round that included a hole-in-one, and Highland Park won the state title by 25 strokes.
So Scheffler is tough. Now we’ll see how fast he is.
He’s got a Tiger chasing him.
Scheffler fired a 67 on Friday that got him to 8-under and five strokes clear of the Masters field. History likes his chances. Only five men have led by at least five shots through 36 holes, and four won. The one who didn’t, Harry Cooper, was in 1936.
But Tiger is a different animal at Augusta. Gripping a club suddenly gets harder when he sends roars echoing through the Georgia pines on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, and they will this weekend for the 23rd straight time since he has played here as a professional.
Woods, in many respects, has already won the 86th Masters. Twice.
He “won” Thursday by just walking onto the first tee, then shooting 1-under 71. He “won” again Friday by continuing his streak of made cuts at Augusta, despite swirling winds and bad breaks (and bad shots, too) that led to bogeys on four of his first five holes. That left him at 3-over with 13 holes to play and the wind howling even more; the cut line was 4-over.
But then he birdied the par-5 eighth. And birdied the imposing 10th. And 13. And 14. And nearly 16 and 17.
That got him to 73 and 1-over for the tournament, separated from Scheffler by 17 players and nine strokes.
“It was a good fight, I got back in the ball game,” Woods said. “I’m four shots back of second (place). … I could have easily kicked myself out of the tournament today, but I kept myself in it.”
He appeared to be in more discomfort as the round wore on, just as he did Thursday. Instead of returning a club to his bag or handing it to caddie Joe LaCava, he used it as a makeshift cane as he walked, gingerly, up or down Augusta’s undulating fairways.
A team of physios is waiting for him after the round, with ice baths and massage tables and stretching bands to reduce the swelling. They are staying with him and available 24/7, in case he wakes up in pain and needs treatment.
“I was hoping I didn’t have any setbacks along the way where I couldn’t go, but I didn’t have any setbacks,” Woods said. “Everything has been good, has been tough. My team has done a hell of a job getting me ready, getting the body — after I go ahead and break it out there, they go ahead and repair it at night. You should know this from all the NASCAR. Break it, fix it.
“I’m good at breaking it. They’re good at fixing it.”
Scheffler, meanwhile, is humming along and threatening to lap the field. The world’s newly minted No. 1 player has three wins since February in only his second full season on the PGA Tour, including two weeks ago at the Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas. Woods had four bogeys in five holes Friday; Scheffler has three in 36 … and 11 birdies (and would have had 12 had he not missed a short putt at the ninth hole).
He’s outdriving Woods by an average of 12 yards. He’s found fairways 82.1 percent of the time; Woods is managing 64.3 percent. He’s hit 72.2 percent of greens in regulation; Woods has hit half. He’s needed 29 and 26 putts. He’s been in greenside bunkers four times and saved par on three.
“Scottie is running away with it right now,” Woods conceded.
Then he added, wryly, almost as if he hoped Scheffler was eavesdropping: “Tomorrow is going to be tough. It’s going to be windy. It’s going to be cool. It’s going to be the Masters that I think the Masters Committee has been looking forward to for a number of years. We haven’t had it like this. It’s going to be exciting, and it’s going to be fun for all of us.”
Scheffler said all the right things at his post-round news conference:
“I’m looking forward to the challenge of tomorrow, but, you know, I wouldn’t say much changes. I mean, I’m still playing the golf course. There are still 50 guys in the field, something like that, and I can’t worry about what those guys are doing. I’m just going to go out and play my game and just keep doing what I’m doing.”
But can he?
This is just his third Masters and his first playing in the same field with Tiger and with fans, with roars echoing through the Georgia pines as the shadows lengthen on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. It’s hard looking through the windshield and rear-view mirror at the same time.
Scheffler knows the story of the 1975 Masters, or he should. Tom Weiskopf led Jack Nicklaus by a stroke as the Golden Bear crouched over a 38-foot curling putt on the 16th green. Nicklaus made it, famously raising his putter as the ball disappeared in the cup and then doing a little jog around the green.
Weiskopf and playing partner Johnny Miller were across the pond on the 16th tee.
“They asked me later if I saw the putt go in,” Miller said, “and I said, ‘No, I just saw the bear tracks after he took it out of the hole.’”
Rattled, Weiskopf left his tee shot at 16 well short and bogeyed, then missed an 8-foot putt at 18 that would have forced a playoff. Nicklaus won the fifth of his record six green jackets.
Woods has won five. Maybe his NASCAR pit crew can’t fix his broken body two more times. Or maybe it can. Maybe Scheffler sees paw prints at Amen Corner come Sunday afternoon.
“I’ve got a chance going into the weekend,” Woods said. “Hopefully I’ll have one of those light-bulb moments and turn it on in the weekend and get it done. You’ve seen guys do it with a chance going into the back nine. If you are within five or six going into the back nine, anything can happen.
“I need to get myself there. That’s the key. I need to get myself there.”
