How Scheffler kept the faith in pursuit of Masters glory

World No1, believing wrong shots and bad breaks were out of his control, trusted he had the almighty on his side

- Andy Bull 

Whatever you may have thought watching it on TV, Scottie Scheffler didn't win the Masters when he made that tricky birdie putt from 10ft on the 8th green, when he hit that lob-wedge to six inches on the 9th, or when he clattered that drive 340 yards down the middle of the 10th for his third successive birdie. No, he explained later, he won it about 2024 years before the tournament even started. "I believe that today's plans were already laid out many years ago, and I could do nothing to mess them up," Scheffler explained. And there you were thinking that God had bigger things to worry about right now than who won that Green Jacket.

Well, you scoff if you want to. But there's no doubt that it gives a man a certain edge around the fairways to know he's got the almighty at his back, even if he's not actually carrying his bag. Scheffler has another passionate Christian, Ted Scott, to do that for him. Like Scott said: "Having the God of the universe, the creator, on your side just makes things a lot easier to deal with." This was Scott's fourth Masters victory, he had already won one with Scheffler and a couple of others with Bubba Watson, and he celebrated it by striding across the clubhouse lawn brandishing the flag stick from the 18th green like he was leading the crusaders into Jerusalem.