For golf fans, this is the biggest week of the year – a tradition unlike any other, as they say. The 2025 Masters in Augusta, Ga., started on Wednesday with the Par 3 contest, and official tournament play began Thursday.
The favorite is Texan Scottie Scheffler, the world No. 1 and a two-time green jacket winner. But he’s not the only Texan in the field.
Kevin Robbins, a journalist based in Austin who recently wrote about Scheffler for Texas Monthly, joined to Standard with more on what to expect at the tournament.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: What is it that makes Scottie the favorite?
Kevin Robbins: Just about everything. He is a player who excels in every skill, mental and physical, in the game of golf. He’s a unicorn. We haven’t seen anything like him since Tiger Woods in 2006, 2007.
He’s just dominating in every facet of the game. He drives it well. He drives it accurately. He hits a lot of greens in regulation.
He makes a lot a putts – even though that’s been a bit of a bugaboo. I guess you got to find a weakness in somebody, right? And it would be his short-range putting, although it’s better than it was a couple of years ago.
I have to ask you – you mentioned Tiger Woods. How does he compare? Is that unfair?
I don’t know. They’re two different people from two different eras playing the same game but in a different way. He’s not as powerful as Tiger Woods was. His drives aren’t as awe-inspiring.
He just kind of clinically goes about dismantling a golf course in the same way that Tiger Woods did, but you know, in slightly different styles.
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I understand you got to know him a little bit as a person, too. What’s he like? How would you describe Scottie Scheffler the guy?
He’s a lot like you and me. I don’t know, he’s a young man who is really good at his sport, is really good at the thing that he likes to do most.
My impression of him is that he doesn’t really care for the celebrity angle of his life. I think he would just prefer to go out and play golf and not do media, but that’s part of it. And he does understand that. He just doesn’t embrace it as much as some professional athletes do who are really into their brand, their image. I just don’t think that’s Scottie Scheffler. He’s pretty modest.
He can be quite talkative when the subject is something that excites him like his son or his wife, Meredith. He comes from, I think, a really solid family. He was born in New Jersey, like his three sisters. They moved to Texas when the kids were young.
His mother was a COO of a pretty big law firm up in Dallas. So dad was like the stay-at-home dad, and he was the guy who dragged the kids around to their various athletic events.
I had a really wonderful Zoom interview with the three sisters at the same time, and it was chaos and it was beautiful. And I just left with the sense that these are people who really love each other and care about each other.
I want to talk about some of the other notable Texans in the field for the 2025 Masters. What names come to mind?
You’ve got Jordan Spieth, of course, the one-time winner. You’ve got Will Zalatoris from Dallas also, who made a good run a few years ago and placed second.
And you’ve a lot of pass-through players – guys who aren’t from Texas maybe, but either went to school here or live here now. Fred Couples comes to mind. Patrick Reed, Tom Hoge, Bryson DeChambeau, Tom Kim, Sahith Theegala, Jhonattan Vegas, who played here at University of Texas. So this tournament is full of Texans.
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What is it about Texas that seems to be so attractive for these up-and-coming pros? I wonder if we’re talking about a kind of golden age for golf in Texas.
Ah, there have been many golden ages. I think it’s a sustained golden age. I mean, we look outside, it’s a glorious morning right now – and that’s part of what makes Texas good for golf is we have a great golf season. It’s so long.
The topography is interesting. And a lot of tour players live here because we have no state income tax. And we have the airports like DFW and Houston that have a lot a direct flights. So it just makes a lot sense.
Is there a center for golf in Texas, as you can tell?
It would probably be Dallas, but some might argue Houston. Unfortunately it’s not Austin, although Austin has a very important role in Texas golf. I would say probably DFW.
Why is that, do you think?
Good clubs, really good private clubs. This is what these players need. They need demanding golf courses; they need good practice facilities; they need privacy. And Dallas has a lot to offer there.
You see Scottie taking it all this year?
I don’t know. Rory McIlroy’s had a wonderful year, and there are a few dark horses out there.
We have not seen Scottie’s best at a sustained level. He was great for a couple of rounds in Houston a couple weeks ago, but he was pretty average in the other two. We’ll see. He’s coming off an injury, you know.
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