Scottie Scheffler made the most famous turn in golf with inevitability in front of him and the final sanctuary to his right.

The pathway from the 9th green to the 10th tee uses two ropes to carve through a swarming and swirling gallery and Scheffler’s white hat bobbed its way across among it. The 18th green where he’d celebrate his second Masters win a few hours later was to his right. A large white scoreboard just beyond it between the 18th and 10th fairways.

He didn’t bother to look. He didn’t need to know.

Scheffler always walks with his head down. He’s so focused on golf between the ropes and only his caddie Ted Scott looks up at the leaderboard. No lead mattered to Scheffler. Scott said he was only focused on doing, “Scottie Scheffler things.”

“Enjoy the lead? No,” Scheffler said. “I tried to soak in stuff around me today. I looked up at the trees at times. I looked up at the fans occasionally to try to soak in some of their energy.”

But no Masters champion has been in such a hurry to get home.

He and his wife Meredith are expecting their first child in the next few weeks. Scheffler has said he would leave a moment’s notice if she went into labor.

Scheffler said in his post-tournament press conference, green jacket on, that he was just trying to answer questions and be on his way. He is so ready to be a dad and rightly finding family above golf.

He reminds us that golf is just a silly, fickle game with a stick and family top of his mind.

“I feel like playing professional golf is an endlessly not satisfying career,” Scheffler said. “For instance, in my head, all I can think about right now is getting home. I’m not thinking about the tournament. I’m not thinking about the green jacket. I’m trying to answer your questions and I’m trying to get home. I wish I could soak this in a little bit more.”

But on the golf course, Scottie Scheffler is great. That’s why he is wearing a green jacket for a second time. Yet now might be a new type of great.

“Why don’t we do what we do and what we’re good at, he’s the best ball striker in the world,” Scott said. “What is he not good at? I don’t know. I think his superpower is people that are super powerful are good at everything, and he seems to be good at everything. He doesn’t really have a weakness.”

Humans chase greatness because we want to see something special like this. Someone so far superior at a sport that it makes any debate over who is the best rendered pointless. It’s why we still follow Tiger Woods around Augusta National as if it were religion and it’s why thousands found their way to the first tee to watch Scheffler. To walk with Scheffler. There was no real thought it could go wrong. How could it? It’s Scottie Scheffler, the wildly obvious No. 1 golfer in the world, for Pete’s sake.

The massive gallery following Scheffler’s group isn’t unusual for a final pairing at the Masters. But the leaderboard was tight and to the patrons, it really didn’t matter. Scottie Scheffler is just a matter of time.

The energy in the whole crowd seemed to be waiting for Scheffler to have his moment of greatness. The whole rest of the field was in a fleeting hope to catch him a prayer he’d somehow have God change their mind.

Many walked the front nine with Scheffler and then began to peel off. They wanted to find their spot on the back nine or specifically on the 18th hole to watch Scheffler clinch it. Yes, they already knew then.

How could this possibly end any other way?

In this age of split golf with the PGA and LIV sectors, greatness is harder to find. Greatness can be found at the Masters. In a way, it is every year. But it’s also hard to find someone like Scottie Scheffler.

There are many golfers with one major win. There are far fewer with two. There are fewer who seem so obviously poised to win more. And there are fewer still who play with a certain dominance like this. There’s a reason Scheffler has drawn so many comparisons in his three-year run to Woods’ prime.

With major number two, Scheffler ascends into a new tier of elite. He put a much-needed addition onto a run on the course so dominant and always contending but not always winning the majors.

The comparisons to Woods come from Scheffler’s results. They come from his purely elite standing in every ball-striking statistic.

Scheffler is first on the PGA Tour in total shots gained. He’s first in shots gained on approaches to the green. He’s second in shots gained off the tee. He’s fifth in shots gained around the tee.

It’s play so uncommon that it leads to maddening consistency at the top of leaderboards.

His last missed cut was in August 2022. Since he won the 2022 Masters, Scheffler has only missed three total cuts. In that time he has played nearly 50 tournaments and has now won six times. He has been in the top 10 of an event 31 times since he won the 2022 Masters. He has been in the top three 20 times.

Those numbers sound impossible. They clearly aren’t.

But the one thing that held Scheffler back was his putting. He’s currently 97th on Tour in strokes gained putting.

This year in March, he famously switched from a blade putter to a mallet. He immediately won two weeks in a row. Then he took one week off before playing in Houston where he finished second. Another week off and he arrived at Augusta National. He won. Four events, three wins with the new putter. He entered Sunday second in the Masters field in strokes gained putting.

If he can putt like this, how could Scheffler ever lose?

On the international stage yet again, Scheffler proved it again.

Every Masters winning round has the shot. The one brilliant swing that will be remembered on a course filled with legends and lore and maybe Scheffler’s this year came on the 9th hole.

The gallery expected it. They cheered for Scheffler when he walked up to the first tee as if he’d already won. But with a bogey on the 4th and 7th holes, Scheffler slightly opened the door.

Scheffler doesn’t often give opportunity. It was an inflection point where those chasing him in Collin Morikawa, Max Homa and Ludvig Aberg all had their chance. Briefly, they caught Scheffler at -7 as the titan headed down the 9th fairway.

But Scottie Scheffler is a killer. He stepped on the field’s throat with his lob wedge at the bottom of the hill on the 9th and onto the green, spinning back and trickling slowly down to the hole and for a moment, fatefully close to going in. From 89 yards to six inches away. Right after Aberg made a 36-foot birdie putt on the same green. Scheffler reminded them who they were trying to beat.

Scheffler birdied. It was over then. He had a lead again then. He never relinquished it again. The door was closed. As if only one shot up for Scheffler was a mountain.

And maybe it was all officially decided in Amen Corner. The winds are fickle, the green tantalizing.

But Aberg made a double bogey on 11. Homa hit over the green on 12 and double-bogeyed. Morikawa made a double bogey on 11.

Amen Corner self-eliminates year after year.

But Scheffler emulated Woods again putting his Sunday shot on 12 safely in the middle of the green. Surely he knew. Surely he knew what was happening just in front of him. Head down or not, surely he heard the roars and the groans and knew just when to strike.

Then he did what the greats do. He finished the job with no questions.

He went for the green even though he didn’t on the par-5 13th. Birdie. He led by three.

“Ballgame,” a patron called out from the 14th hole grandstands as hit putt fell.

“Scottie has to do something to lose,“ another called out.

How does anyone beat Scheffler? Is hoping he’ll slip up the only way?

He didn’t. Scheffler finished at -11. Aberg was the closest at -7.

He’d made his point and enforced it with a brilliant birdie on 14, and then another on 16. He made 7 birdies in his round in total.

When the lights were the brightest, he was yet again the best. It’s what makes him great. He’s reliable. He is inevitable. This was always how it was going to end.

Maybe the only thing that could have stopped Scheffler was the impending birth of his first child. And even that held off too.

He kept his head down to stroll up the 18th fairway. He was still listening. Still soaking in his victory lap at least a little bit. The patrons had lined the 18th hole for hours knowing they’d be clapping for Scheffler. It was packed all the way down to the fairway bunker. It was just a question of when he’d get there.

Scheffler had a job to do, but still appreciated the moment.

And when the final putt at last ended a long-known certainty, Scheffler threw his arms up with his mallet putter still in his hands. It’s a club that took his career in a month to a whole new stratosphere of greatness.

At last, he then let himself enjoy it. He yelled and pumped both of his arms and swished his hat.

He’d done it again. But this time wasn’t his arrival. It was an ascension.

He’s the forefront of the next generation of greatness in golf.

“My identity is secure forever.”

Matt Cohen covers sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]