AUGUSTA, Ga. \u2014 Scottie Scheffler needed something special over the final two days to rally at the Masters.<\/p>\n
This was certainly a start.<\/p>\n
Scheffler matched this week’s lowest score\u00a0at Augusta National\u00a0by shooting a 7-under 65 on Saturday as the field closed the gap on Rory McIlroy. By the time the day was over, McIlroy’s six-stroke advantage was gone and he was tied for first with Cameron Young. Scheffler, who had been a dozen strokes off the lead after 36 holes, had pulled within four.<\/p>\n
His round could have been even better, but Scheffler didn’t want to hear that when asked a question to that effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just a terrible question,\u201d he said. \u201cNext question. Awful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scheffler’s 31 was the best front nine of his seven Masters appearances, which include two victories. After adding another birdie on No. 11, the world No. 1 had cut his 12-stroke deficit behind McIlroy in half. But he made only one birdie the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess to answer your question \u2014 it wasn\u2019t maybe that bad \u2014 but it definitely could have been lower,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cBut like I said, I did what I needed to do. Went out and executed to give myself some opportunities, and more of that tomorrow, and I think I\u2019ll be in a good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy shot 65 on Friday\u00a0to move to 12 under par, with a record\u00a0six-shot lead through 36 holes\u00a0over Patrick Reed and Sam Burns. Scheffler was 12 back at even par, but then he knocked his second shot to 6 feet on the par-5 second and eagled it.<\/p>\n
His approach shots Saturday were clinical, even if he didn’t always convert his opportunities on the green. Scheffler missed a 7-foot birdie putt on No. 3, then made par after hitting his tee shot into a bunker on the par-4 fifth.<\/p>\n
He finished the front nine with birdies on Nos. 7, 8 and 9. His second shot on the par-4 ninth \u2014 from 160 yards \u2014 rolled off the lip of the hole.<\/p>\n
Scheffler continued to give himself chances on the back. He had birdie putts from 8 feet on No. 11, 18 feet on the 12th hole, 15 feet on the 13th and 13 feet on the 14th \u2014 but only one of those went in. His birdie putt from just off the green on No. 15 stopped maybe one ball length from dropping.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hit it really nice today. I felt like I was very sharp with the irons,\u201d he said. \u201cGot it up there. Gave myself a lot of opportunities. I felt like I took advantage of those on the front nine, and then back nine I did a lot of good things. Was really, really close to seeing a lot go in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, Scheffler made one more birdie on the par-3 16th before missing an 8-footer for birdie on the 17th. His tee shot on the final hole wound up near a tree and some bushes, but he still ended up with a tap-in par.<\/p>\n
A great round \u2014 but perhaps not great enough. Scheffler is within four shots of the lead, but he’s in a tie for seventh.<\/p>\n
Scheffler is 2 over on Nos. 13 and 15 \u2014 the two par 5s on the back nine. McIlroy is 5 under and Young is 4 under on those holes. Young shot 65 as well Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUGUSTA, Ga. \u2014 Scottie Scheffler needed something special over the final two days to rally at the Masters.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-598717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598717","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=598717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}