“Terrible question,” Scheffler snapped. “Next question. Awful.”
Scheffler then let out a laugh in disbelief that one could describe as a smirk. However, another fellow journalist stepped in and asked: “What enabled you to go low today as compared to maybe the last couple of days?”
Reporter: “That was a 65 today. What did it feel like it could have or should have been?”
Scottie Scheffler: “That’s a terrible question. Next question. Awful.”
@TheMasters pic.twitter.com/uUhe6CvsmL
— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) April 11, 2026
This time, Scheffler was far more forthcoming and said, “Yeah, I hit it really nice today. I felt like I was very sharp with the irons. Got it up there. Gave myself a lot of opportunities. I felt like I took advantage of those on the front nine and then the back nine.”
He then admitted in his next breath that, “Get a little gust downwind… fortunately, today it didn’t go all the way into the hazard, but still left me with a pretty difficult pitch. Then 16 did some good things. 17, you know, three really good shots. Still didn’t make birdie. Overall, it could have been—I mean, I guess to answer your question, it wasn’t maybe that bad, but it definitely could have been lower.”
Scheffler entered the third round 12 shots behind McIlroy, needing a historic surge. He found it early, recording an eagle on the 2nd hole and a front-nine 31, his best-ever nine-hole score at Augusta. However, in the back nine, he missed some opportunities.
After hitting a ‘mudball’, he missed a birdie on a par-5 hole 13. On Hole 15, a “gust downwind” pushed his approach long, forcing a difficult par save on another scoring hole. And he executed three “really good shots” but watched an 8-foot birdie putt slide past on the 17th. So, while his third-round 65 was historic, there was some underlying frustration that only Scheffler can feel.
Still, this isn’t the first time Scheffler shut down a golf reporter during an interview.
A reporter recently brought up an incident at the pre-tournament presser of the 2026 Genesis Invitational, saying that Scheffler threw the ball into the crowd because he was a little frustrated that week, given his past results.
Scheffler first clarified that he threw the ball in the trees and then said, “The trees were okay. You’ve played golf before, though, right? Yeah, it’s frustrating. No. I think competition is kind of its own thing. Stupid questions. (Laughter.) No, I’m just playing.”
So with this recent incident at Augusta, fans are simply not happy with the world’s # 1 golfer’s behavior.
Fan reactions on Scheffler’s spiky persona
“Didn’t seem too off base of a question. Scheffler said himself he left some shots out there,” one fan said. Another sarcastically added, “They really do ask such bad questions. ‘Hypothetically..if you could get a hole in one on every hole..would that be good?’”
Just moments before, Scheffler had a televised interview with Amanda Balionis, where he admitted, “I feel like I left a few shots out there, but overall it was a good day”. So, when Jason Sobel asked the follow-up question essentially in a formal setting minutes later, Scheffler labeled it “awful”.
Sports Illustrated (SI)’s senior journalist Bob Harig also reflected on the matter, saying, “After he just said in a TV interview that he had left a few out there on the back 9. Dckish.”
However, another fan looked at the play-by-play data to see if the “could have been” question had merit. And they found something exciting. Scheffler missed a 7-footer on the 3rd, lipped out on the 9th and 14th, and failed to birdie the par-5 13th and 15th from the fairway.
The fan added, “I love Scottie, but that’s a fair question, 61 was out there – hit the lips at 3 and 14 and didn’t birdie 13 or 15 from the fairway…17 putt was VERY makeable too.”
But most of the fans argue this isn’t a one-off moment.
They say, “Scottie has been prickly for about two years now. That question is perfectly legit… Getting a bit tired of the petulant Scottie.”
