Scotty Schaffler begins converting masters into breezes in the New Jersey home courtyard
Augusta, Ga. – Golf is considered to be the craziest sport around, and yet Scotty Schaffler found it silly easy. He didn’t feel much more stressed about winning the Masters than hitting the ball when he was 5 years old in his New Jersey backyard, bringing it home and turning it into a lucrative future as the best player on earth.
Yes, taking a five-stroke lead, he turned his childhood days spent on the 18th Green Sunday into the Rockland County minigolf and the Hudson River upstairs into a fitting comedy. On a brutal path he had grinded holes so hard and so exhausting over 71 ¹ / दिवस for so many days, he decided to relax, broke that steel grip on his concentration and had a little fun. Schaefler caught his mouth in mock horror after the third missed put, inspiring the gallery to excite and enjoy it for him, and that fourth put will successfully go for a double bogey in the cup.
But man, has the boy ever earned it?
“I’ll give myself a free pass on it,” Schaffler said while wearing a green jacket.
As his first Jersey Boy Champ, he now has a permanent Augusta National free pass.
As it turned out, the three-stroke victory over the 10-under finish and Rory McIlroy was not as easy as it seemed. On Saturday night, Schaefler re-watched some of Season 4 of his favorite show, “The Office,” which, after a ride in his home car, delighted his wife, Meredith. The next morning, however, was a completely different story. The burden of leading the Masters fell on him from Friday.
“I cried like a baby this morning,” Sheffler said Sunday night. “I was very stressed. I didn’t know what to do. “
He had won three PGA Tour tournaments in the last two months, and was already a certified Ryder Cup hero, and yet for the first time in his career Schaffler fell before the final. He told Meredith that he was not ready for the challenge, that he was overwhelmed. She gave her partner a pep talk, made him a big breakfast, and calmed him down when Scotty came into the office.
“This golf course and this competition are different,” Schaffler explained.
However, in the process, he overcame it by showing that the people had no fear. Seventeen years after the magical, mysterious chip-in sinking took place 16 years after Tiger Woods won his fourth green jacket, Schaffler immersed himself in the third hole to spend the week wearing Tiger shirts and shoes and wearing Tiger shirts and shoes for his first victory. Iron Cameron Smith, an Australian championship winner, turned a three-stroke deficit on the first two holes into a one-stroke deficit and was seen squeezing the leader hard.
Chip-in defined 25-year-old Schaffler as a study in Big-Game Poison.
Convinced of the victory, Schaffler’s father, Scott, began reminiscing about his son’s youth – shooting on 9W grade ice and then in the cold darkness at the nine-hole Orchard Hills course at Bergen Community College. Scott used to stand near the flagstick with the flashlight, next to his girls, and Scott would fire a few line drives at them. Scott said, “He used to yell at us when he hit. “He used to hit the girls.”
The course manager fired the cheflers more than once until Scott persuaded the man to measure his son’s game. “Then he didn’t bother us,” Scott said. The father learned to walk away from the flag with a flashlight as his son was targeted.
How special was the trip to New Jersey / New York. Ridgewood, N.J. Born in, Scotty was 4 years old when he was first asked by his father to take him to the old driving range at 9W. A naval veteran and pro named George Kopak ran the range and did not believe in the strength and accuracy of young Scotty’s swing. On a cold rage day, Kopak will leave a super jumbo-sized bucket for the child behind the shed and make sure a rubber tee and turf mat are cleared of snow.
The routine was simple: Scotty didn’t throw the ball for hours, but in the closed range and the Kopak family members got it back after the snow melted. Of course, a month after George’s 88th death, all the kopecks were aired on their TV in Rockland on Sunday.
Kathy Kopack texted The Post: “I wish my dad would come here to see what a wonderful man Scotty is. “There were tears of joy for Scotty today. I know my dad is saying, ‘I knew he would do it.’ “
