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Most golfers would love finishing second and then P2 in The Masters and the RBC Heritage. Most golfers aren’t Scottie Scheffler. Only he and a handful of other golfers could come out of the last two weeks with those results and feel disappointed. Scheffler’s fourth-round surge at Augusta wasn’t enough, and a final-round push on Sunday wasn’t enough.
Scottie Scheffler falls again
Scottie Scheffler’s comeback bid at The Masters began when he fell 12 shots behind after two rounds. He proceeded to make par or better on the final 36 holes, making history. But a birdie putt missing by millimeters on the 17th prevented him from getting to a playoff with Rory McIlroy.
This week, he did enough to get into a playoff, but he couldn’t take down Matt Fitzpatrick in the one-on-one playoff at the RBC Heritage. This came after playing all 18 holes with Fitzpatrick and chipping away at what was a three-stroke lead when they teed off.
Scheffler made par on the 18th while Fitzpatrick bogeyed, seemingly giving the world number one all the momentum heading into the playoff. And truthfully, there are no worse golfers to have to face head-on than Scheffler, but even that didn’t faze Fitzpatrick.
Ironically, the 18th hole had been tough all weekend long, and it gave Fitzpatrick problems in regulation. But when the 18th hole was the setting of the playoff, Fitzpatrick took what he’d learned and turned in a 13-foot birdie to win as Scheffler could not match.
Matt Fitzpatrick comments on clutch win
Matt Fitzpatrick entered the final round with a three-stroke lead, which is far from insurmountable but is enough to feel like you’re genuinely leading the pack. But when it’s Scottie Scheffler lurking, no lead feels comfortable.
And it proved not to be, as Scheffler chipped away and tied it at the buzzer. Fitzpatrick rebounded, though. “It was quite funny that the playoff was just going to keep playing on 18. I was thinking it was going difficult in a way to separate ourselves because it’s such a difficult hole,” Fitzpatrick said. “To do it how I did was special.”
“I didn’t get out of line in terms of no one was shouting on backswings or anything like that, which was great,” the golfer added. “I’m all for it. I love the people … they’re supporting Scottie. You want golf to have an atmosphere. I’m paid so much money to be out there in front of those crowds. Having them chanting at you every week, it’s a great feeling. However, there’s no better feeling than coming out on top against that.”
Fitzpatrick has been on a steady rise in the rankings. He is now the world number three, behind just Rory McIlroy and Scheffler. Last week, he was seventh, and at the end of 2025, he was 22nd. He has a ways to go to catch McIlroy, who trails Scheffler by a lot, but the surge has been impressive.
World number one fell behind too early
If Scottie Scheffler had started out stronger in both the last two weeks, he might not have needed to make such epic comeback attempts. He might have come out with a win in one or both of the competitions.
“In both weeks, I put myself behind the 8-ball going into the weekend and had really nice Saturdays and Sundays in order to get myself into contention,” the golfer said. “On Sunday, it’s a shot here or there that makes a difference. This was one of those weeks where anytime Fitzy needed something to happen, he made something happen.”
It was Fitzpatrick’s second win in a month. He also finished runner-up at the Players Championship, so 2026 has been a fantastic year for him.
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