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The three-peat win for Scottie Scheffler ended on Sunday as the unforeseen force of Hideki Matsuyama engulfed the world’s best in the Bahamas. Over the four days, Mr. Inevitable found himself stuck in several areas, which, if one were to scrutinize, could have led to his fall. But tournament host Tiger Woods has some thoughts to spare (quite subtle, cheeky thoughts actually).

“I’ve been out for so long, so it’s nice to catch up with these guys…,” says Woods as he joined the NBC Booth for the final round of the Hero World Challenge. “He’s the number one player in the world; he can do whatever he wants.”

During the final round, Scheffler was ahead of the pack with a two-shot lead. As he approached the 11th hole, he made an aggressive decision to hit a driver from 291 yards away! His golf ball had a speck of mud on its front, which made this quite a risky and unconventional choice. Surely, the shot backfired.

Scheffler’s attempt was to reach the green in two. Rather, the ball went under a small bush as he made the swing. He was then forced to hack out a sandy area before he could hit his fourth shot over the green into a back bunker. That was good, and he escaped with a bogey.

“…Definitely a YOLO shot by Scottie there lol,” said one user on X.

In Scheffler’s defence, chasing a record-breaking feat would make anyone take certain “questionable decisions.” The American was the defending champ on the course of Albany. He had also taken the trophy home in 2023. If he had won this time, Scheffler would have become the only player in the history of the event to win it three times in a row. Unfortunately, he had to settle with a T4, tying with his Ryder Cup mate JJ Spaun.

“I did a lot of good stuff, hit the ball pretty nice,” Scottie Scheffler told the presser after the fourth round. “Definitely need to be sharper around the greens, but that’s probably a bit of rust.”

The rust he talks about is the four-month rest he took. Scheffler, sitting on the pinnacle of the OWGR, didn’t necessarily have to compete in any of the fall events. His last victory was in Napa Valley at the Procore Championship. After that, there was the Ryder Cup, and we all know what happened there.

Such a long stretch of no professional game could be the reason why his weekend in Albany didn’t go error-prone.

Starting, the New Jerseyan had some personal beef with the 16th hole. That was the place he stumbled almost every single day of the tournament. In R1, he hit a double bogey. In R2, his golf ball went into a palmetto bush, and he had to take a penalty shot to escape. Another bogey followed him after that. And then in R3, Scheffler had an awkward stance on the 16th tee, which forced him to pull his shot left into a bunker. The result, yet again, was a bogey.

Now, if these were “bad luck” (as Scheffler himself claimed after R3) or miscalculations on his part, it’s up for debate. But as per Tiger Woods, Scheffler can do whatever he wants. He gets to take that risk, being No.1 in the world. Does this comment, a little bankhanded, if we must say, mean Woods, on his part, would have never made choices like this?

Because if that’s the case, there’s an entire well-documented list of aggressive and risky decisions the Big Cat made during his prime.

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Tiger Woods’ risky 2013 Masters decision

Over a decade ago, in the 2013 Masters, Tiger Woods was on the par-5 15th hole during his R2. There was an 87-yard approach shot in front of him. As he shared the lead with a bunch of other players, he decided to aggressively attack the pin with a 60-degree wedge. What Woods was aiming for was closing the shot with a birdie. Instead, his golf ball bounced off the flagstick and went into the water hazard.

That wasn’t the end of it. Later, Woods made an illegal drop, which only made the situation worse. It placed his golf ball two yards further back than the regulations allowed. It cost him a two-shot penalty.

Had he simply made the birdie, he would have tied for the lead. But, he went for a double bogey with a penalty and gave four shots to the rest of the field. Tiger Woods ended up T4, losing the chance to win his 15th Major championship.

But hey, as he himself says, the number one player in the world can do whatever they want. So did he, being the world’s best himself during the 2013 Masters.