Scottie Scheffler has work to do if he hopes to repeat at Masters

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Scottie Scheffler, like Rory McIlroy, has been chasing history this week.

He’s trying to join Jack Nicklaus as the only players in Masters history to win the tournament in three of four years and the first to defend the title since Tiger Woods in 2002.

But the defending champion, who’s 5-under par, will have a tall hill to climb in Sunday’s final round at Augusta National, entering the day seven shots behind McIlroy, who’s 12-under.

Scheffler, who won seven times last season and has yet to win this year, hasn’t looked like himself this week.

“At times I felt good, at times I felt bad,’’ he said. “I just couldn’t really get anything going. Today and yesterday were days where I could have shot myself out of the tournament, [but] I battled really hard both days.

“Going into tomorrow, have a good front nine and start moving my way up the leaderboard and you never know what can happen on the back nine. I can’t control what anybody else is doing out there. I’ll pay attention, but it’s not going to change how I play the golf course, ultimately.’’

Jon Rahm’s Masters frustrations continued on Saturday. He made the cut on the number at 2-under par on Friday.

And then on Saturday, just when it appeared he might get on a roll, getting it to 4-under for the day with two holes to play, he gave two shots back on 17 and 18 to finish with a 70.

“Just as easily as [birdies] they come, you can get a little unfortunate and start struggling a little bit,’’ Rahm said. “I made a good number of par putts today to post that under par. There’s still a lot of mistakes to hopefully clean up.’’

Asked what he hopes for Sunday, he said, “See if I can go out there and shoot some 6- or 7-under or lower and hope for the best.’’

Rahm, who won the Masters in 2023, joined LIV Golf and finished 76th last year.

Zach Johnson, who was paired with Rahm on Saturday, praised Rahm’s form.

“His scorecard was not indicative of how he actually played, in my opinion,’’ said Johnson, who fired an impressive third-round 66 and stands at 4-under. “That guy is really close. He’s still really, really impressive and a tremendous guy.’’