2022 Tournaments We'll Remember: The Masters
Over the next two weeks, the SI Golf team will look back at 10 memorable tournaments from 2022.
More Tournaments We'll Remember: Augusta National Women's Amateur | The Chevron Championship
The Event: The Masters Tournament
Site: Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Ga.
Dates: April 7-10
Result: Scottie Scheffler wins by three shots over Rory McIlroy.
Why We’ll Remember It: For all of the Masters’ delightful traditions, the key to its mystique may hinge on how each year it somehow surpasses the immense hype surrounding it.
The 2022 Masters was no exception. Heading into Augusta, two players had established themselves as the undisputed hottest players in golf. In alphabetical order, they were: 1) Scottie Scheffler, who had won three of his previous five tournaments and seized the No. 1 ranking, and 2) Australia’s Cam Smith, who had won in Kapalua and at Sawgrass while flashing a flowing mullet and the sturdiest short game in golf.
For added intrigue, Tiger Woods returned to competitive golf for his first major since his single-car accident in February of 2021. And Rory McIlroy entered with a shot at the career grand slam and a chance to exorcise his Augusta demons once and for all.
Overall, a solid setup. It turned out to be a memorable week.
Woods strode the fairways with a pronounced limp, but he gritted his teeth and made the cut. He shot 78-78 on the weekend for a career-worst 47th place finish, but his presence and determination made that Masters one of his finest career accomplishments.
Through three rounds, Scheffler and Smith lived up their billing and separated themselves from the field. They went head-to-head in Sunday’s final group, where Scheffler opened with a three-shot lead, but Smith started birdie-birdie to quickly claw to within one. On the short par-4 3rd hole, Scheffler missed the green with his approach and appeared to be in trouble, but he holed his pitch shot for one of the defining shots of the tournament. Smith, perhaps rattled, made bogey, and the lead was back to three.
Later in the afternoon, Smith still trailed Scheffler by three as they stood on the tee at the par-3 12th hole, and like so many Masters that came before it and will no doubt come after it, that’s where this tournament was decided. Smith rinsed his tee shot in Rae’s Creek and made triple. Scheffler knocked his shot onto the green, made a safe par and strolled off with a six-shot lead on Smith. A coronation was on.
There was a little drama playing out up ahead of the final group—McIlroy began the day 10 shots behind Scheffler, but had caught fire. He eagled the 13th to get to within four, and although he wouldn’t birdie again on until the 18th, his energy gave the Sunday patrons a jolt. When he holed out his bunker shot for birdie on 18 and a 64, it was too little too late for a green jacket, but it was still an electric moment. It’s not often that a final round delivers two of the most memorable shots of the season by two different competitors.
Scheffler’s own moment on 18 had far less flair—he actually four-putted the final green for a double bogey while fighting his emotions, but he finally tapped in for a three-shot victory and his first major title.