Scottie Scheffler praised Rory McIlroy for being able to ​come through a tough stretch and close out the Masters on Sunday after the ‌world number one finished one shot behind the back-to-back champion.

Scheffler, a two-time champion at Augusta National, looked well out of contention after the opening two rounds but went bogey-free through the weekend to finish the tournament at ​11-under par.

“I’ve competed against him for a long time, and you don’t win the ​amount of tournaments that he’s won out here without being pretty resilient,” Scheffler ⁠said of McIlroy.

“I knew going into today I was going to have to do something ​special if I wanted to catch him.”
McIlroy saw the six-shot lead he built up through the first ​two rounds evaporate in the Georgia heat on Saturday and trailed by two shots on Sunday before rallying to victory.

“Having a six-shot lead at Augusta is never easy, and losing that is obviously something difficult,” said Scheffler.

“But ​at the end of the day when you tee it up here on Sunday, you know, ​he’s tied for the lead to start the day and had a solid round and did what he ‌needed to ⁠do in order to get it done.”

Scheffler said a 74 on Friday did the most damage to his title hopes after difficult conditions on Thursday gave way to softer greens the next day.
There were also a few moments on Sunday that could have gone differently, he added, pointing ​to a putt on 17 ​and his approach ⁠at the last.

“The putt I hit on 17 I really thought I made,” he said.
“The shot into 18 I hit it exactly how I wanted ​to. I think we just lost it in the wind, and it ​got right ⁠up to the edge and came all the way back down.”he said he would not dwell on those closing holes.

“Overall I’m not going to hold too many regrets, but definitely a bit disappointed ⁠now,” ​he said.

“I started the weekend 12 shots back and ended ​up only one shot back. If I am going to blame anything, I should probably blame the first two rounds ​before I start looking at stuff from the last couple.”

—Reuters—