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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 "personal health matter."
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.
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Still, they would have attracted the largest galleries and the loudest roars.
"Let's 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," Patrick Reed said this week.
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.
Now the biggest name and best player in golf, Scottie Scheffler, is something entirely different.
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.
This week he spoke, again, about how he didn't want winning and losing to define him. He noted that he doesn't 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.
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.
"My wife is a trouper," Scheffler said.
He sounds like any old suburban dad; it's just that being ranked No. 1 in the world for 186 consecutive weeks is his 9-to-5.
"Sometimes I think it feels like we live almost two separate lives," Scheffler said.
When it came to golf stars around here, that used to mean something else.
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't happen by accident.
Still, he's loath to overemphasize it, let alone discuss it.
"I would say it's 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," Scheffler said.
"If I let my bad golf define me, I'd be a pretty miserable person. If I let my good golf define me, whether or not it's a green jacket or an Open Championship, then I'd walk around pretty arrogant all the time. And I wouldn't be very nice to people because I think I'm hot stuff because I won a few golf tournaments."
Perspective is in. Nonchalance is cool.
The golf is still pretty brilliant.
Maybe Scheffler is what this sport, if not society as a whole, needs right now. He's 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't appreciate what he's doing is missing the plot.
He impresses by not trying to impress and projects confidence by speaking humbly. When it's time to play, he'll be completely focused. "Once you drive down Magnolia Lane," he said, "everything else melts away."
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Yet just vows to not let the final result define his week.
"Most of the time in golf, you're probably going to be a little bit disappointed at the end of the week just because there's only one winner, and there's a lot more losers than that," Scheffler notes.
Besides, parenting will keep you humble.
"[Monday] night we were leaving a Nike party," Scottie Schefler said of trying to corral Bennett. "And he somehow ended up with two sugar cookies and he hadn't eaten his dinner yet. It was like, 'All right, buddy, if you eat these sausages, I will give you this cookie.' He's like, 'Cookie.' I'm like, 'if you eat this.'"
He shrugged his shoulders.
"My buddies are sitting there watching, 'Yep, I've seen this movie before,'" Scheffler said with a laugh.
It's a new era in Augusta. New vibes, too.
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