Scottie Scheffler on the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
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As Scottie Scheffler’s run of dominance continues, his friends have been requested with larger frequency to spill tales of early encounters with the World No. 1. Take one occasion from earlier this week when Tony Finau recalled their first time enjoying collectively; it was the 2020 FedEx Cup Playoffs, Finau had by no means actually heard of Scheffler and the younger Texan birdied No. 18 to shoot 59.
That’s the way in which most Scottie Stories are inclined to go. They underscore his low-key excellence. They contain humility and a few form of unbelievable {golfing} feat. They serve to assist the concept that Scheffler as {golfing} terminator was future, however that his unassuming off-course persona is the actual deal, too.
But what if I instructed you there was a narrative from his school days that uncovered Scheffler’s darker facet?
Nah, solely kidding.
But on Thursday, following a gap four-under 66 on the Texas Children’s Houston Open, Scheffler’s school teammate Beau Hossler recounted a terrific Scottie Story of his personal. A couple of minutes later Scheffler completed off a five-under 65 and was requested about it, too. Together they instructed a story from their time at Texas — a time they almost got here to blows.
That’s the place one reporter started his questioning. Was that correct, as their UT coach stated on the Subpar podcast, that the 2 “almost came to blows”? Or was the story inflated?
“No, it wasn’t inflated,” Hossler stated with a smile. “He probably deflated it, if anything.”
The Texas workforce was in Lubbock enjoying what Hossler referred to as a “mess-around” match earlier than regionals. He was a junior; Scheffler was a freshman. They had been in the identical foursome, every squaring off in opposition to an opponent from the University of New Mexico. And it was windy.
“I don’t know if you’ve been to Lubbock, but it’s very, very, very windy,” Hossler stated. They teed off on the again 9. On No. 18, Hossler hit one within the water. As he took a drop, he chosen a Titleist with a distinct quantity.
“It was so windy you couldn’t hear each other from however far apart, so I didn’t even, like, announce what ball I was playing. I just hit,” he stated. “Two holes later, No. 2 is this blind par-5, I think. We both hit it down the middle and whatever. I walked past the first ball, I walked to the second ball, it’s 10 yards in front. He hits the ball in the back and then I realize that that was not my ball that I was standing next to. We had different markings, but we both were playing a Titleist whatever, 3 with a Longhorn on it. One had a marking and mine didn’t.”
Scheffler confirmed this account. “Yeah, because at the time we both played Titleist balls and I had been playing the same number the whole day and he had a different number and switched it, unknown to me,” he stated with a smile. “Just one of those deals. When you’re around each other that much, stuff like that, mistakes happen. But yeah, pretty funny.”
That’s straightforward for him to say now. It wasn’t significantly humorous on the time.
Here we’ll let Fields bounce in together with his account from that unique interview:
“[Hossler] looks down and goes, ‘This is not my ball.’ You would have thought Mount Vesuvius just went off, like we had a volcano 15 yards below us,” Fields stated on Subpar. “Scheffler got so mad when he figured out that he hit the wrong ball, he ran up to the green 260 yards on a dead sprint, picked up the ball, ran back, threw it at Beau’s feet,” Fields stated. “Beau goes ahead and hits the right shot. Scottie has lost the hole now. He just lost a hole, but it’s killing him. So now they are jawing against each other on the way up, and finally on the next hole, on the par-3, I told Beau, ‘We are not going another step further until you apologize to Scottie for that.’”
Hossler didn’t love that.
“He wasn’t happy,” Hossler stated Thursday, wanting again. “I was like, ‘Well, listen, you’re the one who hit the wrong ball. Like, you hit it, I didn’t.’ And it was a bad deal. It didn’t mean anything, but it was just — we’re really competitive, both of us. That was the really cool part about our golf team at Texas, it was like every player on the team was like either a very good player or a pretty good player that was very competitive. We wanted to kick each other’s ass all the time.”
Presumably Scheffler fell within the “very good player” and “very competitive” classes.
Looking again, Hossler stays unwilling to again down and take the blame.
“That was obviously a penalty and he wasn’t happy about it,” Hossler stated. “I don’t blame him for not being happy about it. I still think it was his fault; he’s the only one who hit the wrong ball. I agree that I should have checked closer that it was actually my ball, but one way or another it’s a good story.”
On that time the 2 appear to agree.
“I’d love to hear Beau’s side because we do like talking about it, but yeah, it’s true,” Scheffler stated. “It was just one of those moments where we had been around each other for so long and you’re in the heat of the moment, you’re out there competing and something happens. Yeah, it’s pretty funny to look back on though, we get a good kick out of it.”
So no, this isn’t a narrative of Scottie Scheffler’s deep darkish previous. A reminder of his aggressive hearth? For positive. A glance into the pressure-packed world of collegiate golf? Definitely. A reminder to obviously mark your golf ball in competitors? That, too.
“The good part about friends is that it lasted — he was pissed off and I was pissed off for about two hours and once we got on the plane home, it was okay,” Hossler concluded. “Scottie’s one among my actually good associates. We’ve grown up actually since we had been most likely 10 and 9 years previous collectively, he’s solely a 12 months behind me. We performed a pair years at Texas however we grew up enjoying the identical tournaments and now we’ve been out right here on Tour collectively. I’ve been out right here seven years, I think about for him it’s 4 or 5 if I needed to guess.
“No, he’s the best. He’s obviously having tremendous success, I’m happy for him. It’s a good story. But no, Coach Fields didn’t exaggerate.”
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