NEVADA – Top-ranked defending champion Scottie Scheffler and world No 2 Rory McIlroy will take a swing at golf history in this week’s 89th Masters.
The superstars are most fancied by oddsmakers when the year’s first major golf showdown starts Thursday at Augusta National.
Scheffler, the 2022 and 2024 Masters green jacket winner, seeks his third major title and could become just the fourth back-to-back Masters champion after Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Nick Faldo. Only Nicklaus has won three of four as Scheffler can.
“I like the way my swing has started to feel,” Scheffler said according to AFP. “Definitely some positive momentum.”
Scheffler, whose nine wins last year also included Paris Olympic gold, missed the start of the season after injuring his hand on Christmas, but says he has recovered from the setback.
“Improving in the ball-striking,” Scheffler said. “My ball striking has not been as good as it has been the past couple years. All of that is getting the body back to where it has been.
“A lot of it is not being able to get the reps. I feel like I’m getting sharper and sharper.”
Elsewhere, after a five-year wait, Madelene Sagstrom ended her LPGA Tour victory drought in decisive fashion, claiming her second career title with a win at the Match Play Championship in Las Vegas.
Then it nearly got away from her, and Sagstrom even briefly fell behind at one point. She righted herself, however, as Lauren Coughlin struggled down the stretch, for a 1-up victory at a Shadow Creek course that proved a difficult challenge for both players.
Couglin claimed five of the next six holes to take the lead. Though she did her part with a pair of birdies, Coughlin also didn’t have to do anything spectacular as Sagstrom carded three bogeys and two doubles over that stretch.
Then Coughlin bogeyed the par-3 13th, and Sagstrom made par to pull back even, which is where the match stood until the 16th.
Both players failed to stay out of the rough, with Coughlin even twice chipping from about the same spot after the ball rolled back on her. Coughlin finally conceded the hole after her 30-foot putt went well past and the double bogey put Sagstrom back in the lead.
“That´s the challenge of this golf course and why it´s both fun and extremely difficult at the same time,” Coughlin said.
