MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 12, 2026

Scottie Scheffler

Quick Quotes

Q. You had that long stretch where you were just parring it to death, but yet you hung in there and must have been seeing what was going on. How were you approaching it at that time, trying not to force too much but also needing to maybe?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I mean, let me think. Holes 4 through 7 are pretty challenging today with the wind direction. Didn't get to take advantage of 8. Hit some good shots into 9. Then 10, 11, 12 are not necessarily birdie holes. Those are holes where if you're making par you don't feel too bad.

Obviously if you're chasing you'd like to sneak one in there and I gave myself some opportunities.

Disappointing par on 13, and wasn't able to get it in the fairway on 14, that was a shot I'd like to have back but then good birdies on 15 and 16 and really great stuff on 17. I hit two really good shots into 18 and the second shot just came up short.

Q. How much do you look at the leaderboards, especially on the second nine?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I'm always curious as to what's going to happen. So I think you always want to know kind of where you're at on the leaderboard.

Q. Can you remember one moment where you looked up probably around 11 or 12 and you realized that you were tied or just one back, somewhere around in there?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I always felt like I was a couple shots out of it, but I was ahead of those guys, so I felt like if I could make a few birdies and post a score I'd be in a good spot but just wasn't able to make enough birdies on the back.

Q. Was the frustration from the early part of the week --

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I'd say Friday probably hurt the most in terms of my chances of winning. We went out on Thursday, Thursday afternoon were some of the most challenging conditions we had all week. I didn't see many birdies out there Thursday afternoon, so going out on Friday, whatever they did to the greens to soften them up, they did some stuff, and I just wasn't able to take advantage of that going on early on Friday.

And then you saw the barrage of birdies that Rory made and Cam Young and a bunch of guys made on Friday late in the day, and I think I finished maybe 2-over par on Friday. So that day probably hurt the most in terms of my chances to win.

Overall, over the course of the weekend, I did some pretty nice stuff to give myself a chance.

Q. Would you have preferred they dried it out, didn't make it a bit easier over the past few days?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I mean, I'm not in charge of course setup. I would have liked it to have been a little bit more equal in terms of the firmness on Thursday and Friday. I was a bit surprised at how soft things were on Friday afternoon, especially as it got late in the day.

But the weather also changes and it was a bit windy on Thursday, so who knows. That's part of the game. We play an outdoor sport and you don't know how conditions are going to change, especially course conditions. Overall, like I said, Friday for me going out early not being able to shoot an under-par round definitely hurt my chances. I think I started the weekend maybe 12 back, so to get within one was a pretty good run.

Q. What does it say about Rory that after a tough day yesterday where he lost that big lead that he was able to get the job done on Sunday?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I mean, to me, it doesn't say much more because I've competed against him for a long time, and you don't win the amount of tournaments that he's won out here without being pretty resilient.

I mean, having a six-shot lead at Augusta is never easy, and losing that is obviously something difficult. But at the end of the day when you tee it up here on Sunday, you know, he's tied for the lead to start the day and had a solid round and did what he needed to do in order to get it done.

I knew going into today I was going to have to do something special if I wanted to catch him on Cam and I was close but just a few shots here or there.

Q. This is now four out of the last five majors between you and Rory and you nearly got this one. Can you speak to that dynamic between the two of you that you've been able to put together these performances on the biggest stages?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I mean, I didn't realize that until you just said. Yeah, Rory won the last two Masters and I clipped some majors last year. So yeah, I mean, I think the major championships bring out the best in me sometimes, and I had some good starts last year and I obviously had a good week this week. There's a few shots I'd like to have back, but overall put up a good fight.

Does that answer your question?

Q. Is there a shot from today that you're going to look back on and go, man, I was one shot away, could have been a difference?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think you always go towards the end of the round just because those are the last couple shots. The putt I hit on 17 I really thought I made.

The shot into 18 I hit it exactly how I wanted to. I think we just lost the wind, and it got right up to the edge and came all the way back down. Would've been nice to give myself and opportunity there on 18, but I always talk about how I try to be focused on controlling the things that I can control and yesterday and today was some of the best that I've felt like I've been mentally all year. Like my shot into 18, I hit it how I wanted to, we just lost the wind and it came up a little bit short.

Overall I'm not going to hold too many regrets, but yeah, definitely a bit disappointed now. But like I said, I started the weekend 12 shots back and ended up only one shot back. If I am going to blame anything, I should probably blame the first two rounds before I start looking at stuff from the last couple.

Q. What do you think led to being better mentally?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: No, no, because I felt like really over the course of four days I did a really good job of handling myself and being committed to what I could control. Sometimes it's just a matter of the things going the right way for you, and I felt like this week I did some things where it felt like I could really get hot and the putt didn't fall or didn't get the right bounce. Just those little things to gain momentum within the tournament that didn't feel like was happening for me as much this week.