Scottie Scheffler hails Tiger Woods influence after maiden major

Scottie Scheffler hailed the influence of Tiger Woods after claiming his first major title in impressive style in the 86th Masters at Augusta National.

Woods was completing his second consecutive 78 as the final pairing of Scheffler and Cameron Smith teed off on Sunday, the 46-year-old understandably struggling over the weekend in his first top-level event since suffering severe injuries in a car accident 14 months ago.

The 15-time major winner received a standing ovation as he made his way to the 18th green and his impact on the current generation cannot be underestimated.

"Oh, yeah," Scheffler said when asked if he had been influenced by Woods. "I played Tiger's irons, wore his shoes, wore his shirt this week.

"Tiger on the golf course is just ridiculous. He’s done so much for the game of golf. I spoke about it a little bit at the beginning of the week, we are so glad to have him back out here.

"He is the needle for the game of golf. He has completely changed the PGA Tour from when he came on 25 years ago.

"And his YouTube clips are such an inspiration for me. I remember watching the highlights of him winning (the Masters) in ’97, kind of running away with it, and he never really broke his concentration.

"That’s something that I reminded myself of today (Sunday). I tried not to look up. I tried to keep my head down and just keep doing what I was doing because I didn’t want to break my concentration.

"The minute I did was on 18 green when I finally got on there and I had a five-shot lead and was like, all right, now I can enjoy this. And you saw the results of that."

That was a reference to Scheffler four-putting the 72nd hole, an aberration which meant he recorded a closing 71 to finish 10 under par, three shots ahead of an