Reigning Masters champ Scottie Scheffler keen to join the Augusta immortals

As one of just 25 players to have been ranked world number one in the men's game, Scottie Scheffler is already a member of a pretty exclusive club.

But in a few days' time at Augusta National the unassuming Texan will attempt to join an even more elite group as he bids to defend his Masters title.

Despite the Masters having the smallest field of any of the four majors and being the only one played on the same course every year, Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods remain the only players to have slipped on the famous green jacket in consecutive years.

The list of defending champions who even had a chance to secure back-to-back wins is not exactly long either, with 2015 winner Jordan Spieth coming closest in recent times when he squandered a five-shot lead 12 months later and finished second to Danny Willett.

"Well I think it's very hard to win one major and it's probably even harder to win two," Scheffler said.

"As you go from one to the next it probably gets harder as it increases. So I think with a small sample size of back-to-back champions, that's just because they're really, really good at golf.

"So, as I'm approaching the Masters, I'm not going to think of myself as the defending champion, I'm just going to go out there like I usually do and try and execute shots and play good solid rounds of golf.

"Yes, I am the defending champion and I would love to defend and bring this jacket back home with me, but I'm not going to be thinking about that standing there on the first tee. I'm going to be thinking about hitting the fairway and trying to hit the green.

"Everybody starts at even par. Doesn't matter if I'm defending champion or not, they don't give me any shots."

While that is, of course, true, Scheffler has already