AUGUSTA, Ga. — For the first time since 1994, both Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will miss the Masters. Woods is purportedly in treatment and facing legal troubles following his latest car accident. Mickelson is dealing with a \u201cpersonal health matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Golf has had plenty of time to adjust to a post-Tiger\/Phil future, with new stars and new storylines. Neither of the 50-somethings would have been considered favorites to win here this week if they had been able to make it.<\/p>\n
Still, they would have attracted the largest galleries and the loudest roars.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s be honest, without Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in the events, in golf, when they both step away, honestly I feel it hurts the game,\u201d Patrick Reed said this week.<\/p>\n
They are charismatic, at times chaotic and always uber competitive. They helped drive the sport and certainly this tournament, which is more relevant than ever.<\/p>\n
Now the biggest name and best player in golf, Scottie Scheffler, is something entirely different.<\/p>\n
Tiger and Phil, to different degrees, brought a winning-is-everything ethos to the sport, complete with plenty of off-course soap operas and scandals. Scheffler appears to be a well-adjusted, soft-spoken, faith-balanced, family man from Texas.<\/p>\n
This week he spoke, again, about how he didn\u2019t want winning and losing to define him. He noted that he doesn\u2019t know how to use Instagram, which explains the sporadic posting. On Wednesday, he walked through the crowds to the practice green, carrying his putter, all alone, without any caddie, entourage or security. Perhaps he thought no one would notice him.<\/p>\n
He appeared more comfortable discussing his family — he and wife Meredith have Bennett, nearly 2, and newborn Remy — than his golf swing. Meredith, for example, is handling the midnight wake-ups so he can get some sleep, it being Masters week and all.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife is a trouper,\u201d Scheffler said.<\/p>\n
He sounds like any old suburban dad; it\u2019s just that being ranked No. 1 in the world for 186 consecutive weeks is his 9-to-5.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I think it feels like we live almost two separate lives,\u201d Scheffler said.<\/p>\n
When it came to golf stars around here, that used to mean something else.<\/p>\n
Make no mistake, there is no lack of competitiveness. At the age of 29, he has won four majors, including green jackets in 2022 and 2024. That doesn\u2019t happen by accident.<\/p>\n
Still, he\u2019s loath to overemphasize it, let alone discuss it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say it\u2019s always been a battle for me trying to strike a balance between continuing to work hard, staying competitive, and also not having my — either my good golf or my bad golf — define me because that could go one of two ways,\u201d Scheffler said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I let my bad golf define me, I\u2019d be a pretty miserable person. If I let my good golf define me, whether or not it\u2019s a green jacket or an Open Championship, then I\u2019d walk around pretty arrogant all the time. And I wouldn\u2019t be very nice to people because I think I\u2019m hot stuff because I won a few golf tournaments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perspective is in. Nonchalance is cool.<\/p>\n
The golf is still pretty brilliant.<\/p>\n
Maybe Scheffler is what this sport, if not society as a whole, needs right now. He\u2019s a champion who seeks something larger than himself, who finds joy in more than accolades and accomplishments. He might not deliver the obvious electricity of past greats, but anyone who doesn\u2019t appreciate what he\u2019s doing is missing the plot.<\/p>\n
He impresses by not trying to impress and projects confidence by speaking humbly. When it\u2019s time to play, he\u2019ll be completely focused. \u201cOnce you drive down Magnolia Lane,\u201d he said, \u201ceverything else melts away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet just vows to not let the final result define his week.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the time in golf, you\u2019re probably going to be a little bit disappointed at the end of the week just because there\u2019s only one winner, and there\u2019s a lot more losers than that,\u201d Scheffler notes.<\/p>\n
Besides, parenting will keep you humble.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Monday] night we were leaving a Nike party,\u201d Scottie Schefler said of trying to corral Bennett. \u201cAnd he somehow ended up with two sugar cookies and he hadn\u2019t eaten his dinner yet. It was like, \u2018All right, buddy, if you eat these sausages, I will give you this cookie.\u2019 He\u2019s like, \u2018Cookie.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018if you eat this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He shrugged his shoulders.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy buddies are sitting there watching, \u2018Yep, I\u2019ve seen this movie before,\u2019\u201d Scheffler said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a new era in Augusta. New vibes, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUGUSTA, Ga. — For the first time since 1994, both Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will miss the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[156329,156332,49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-591509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-2026-masters","tag-augusta-national","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}