Scottie Scheffler received by 5 at Bay Hill and appears to defend his title on the Players.
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Earlier this week, squeezed between his dominant five-stroke victory at Bay Hill and his opening-round, ho-hum, five-under 67 at TPC Sawgrass, Scottie Scheffler sidled as much as the Players Championship podium to face questions from the media.
Among the primary: How does Scheffler — World No. 1, Masters champion, defending Players Champion, and so on. — keep so grounded?
Scheffler appreciated the premise of the query. The “grounded” bit specifically.
“Well, I think that’s a nice compliment,” he mentioned. “So thank you.”
He cited his religion and his household. He has nice dad and mom, he mentioned, and an important spouse and nice mates. “I’m surrounded by a lot of people that really don’t care very much whether or not I won last week,” he mentioned. Scheffler takes satisfaction in being World No. 1. He additionally takes satisfaction in understanding he doesn’t have to be.
“Grounded” is the phrase one other high professional used to explain him, too. Max Homa’s pre-tournament press convention shortly shifted to the topic of Scheffler, and he gamely provided admiring evaluation.
Homa gushed about his ball-striking (“I’ve never seen anybody hit the ball quite like that every day,” he mentioned) and his quick sport (“amazing”) and his thoughts (“seems like he’s really got it figured out”). He added a reminiscence from final 12 months’s Memorial.
“He lost by one, and I think he was like 18 strokes gained putting behind the leader,” Homa mentioned. “That’s terrifying.”
All great things. But why is it, a reporter requested, that Scheffler might stroll by means of New York City with out being acknowledged?
“Part of it is I think he’s just an incredibly grounded person,” Homa mentioned. “He’s not going to intentionally put himself in the limelight because his values are great. He’s an amazing husband, future father. [Scheffler’s wife Meredith is due in April.] He’s just a great guy.”
But there are many nice guys who aren’t among the many finest golfers on the planet. There are loads of nice guys who aren’t approaching World No. 1 at something. There are loads of nice guys who aren’t able to taking up because the face of a sport. Is Scheffler as much as the duty?
“I saw somebody on the internet say he’s boring,” Homa continued. He argued that’s lacking the purpose. “I’d think about that’s what you’ll dream of, to turn into one of the best participant on the planet and somebody who’s going to set information and win a bunch of majors. You need to play as boring of golf as you’ll be able to, you need it to be as even-keeled as you’ll be able to. You’d assume that’s what you’ll construct in a lab.
“So, I dunno. I would recognize him walking down the street. If I was a fan of golf, I would gawk at how impressive he has been and how great of a person he is, so I’m not sure why it doesn’t seem to stand out as much as others, but maybe you just have to give it time.”
He added one thing more, too: “I think the more people listen to him talk, the more they’ll become a massive fan of him.”
That was applicable as a result of Scheffler’s pre-tournament remarks have been about as forceful and engaging as he’s ever given in public. There was nonetheless loads of what makes Scottie Scottie, like an aw-shucks praise of his grandmother’s chocolate cream pie. But there have been additionally takes on the state of the sport, on the state of his sport and from whom he attracts inspiration.
What does he make of the splintered professional sport?
“If the fans are upset, then look at the guys that left,” Scheffler mentioned, referring to LIV defectors. “We had a Tour, we were all together, and the people that left are no longer here. At the end of the day, that’s where the splintering comes from,” he mentioned.
Asked concerning the doubts that include a stretch of poor placing, Scheffler took us inside his mindset and reminded us (grounded or not) simply how a lot it issues to him.
“At times I think it got to the point where a putt would go in, but if that ball didn’t roll end over end, at the back of your head you’re like, wait, did I really hit that putt good?” he mentioned. “I think sometimes I expected perfection out of myself, and I’m like that in a lot of different things.”
Scheffler mentioned he doesn’t use the road on his ball to line up anymore, which frees him up a bit of bit from chasing perfection. Still …
“That’s a heck of a lot easier said than done because, y’know, I’ve worked my entire life to get here to the PGA Tour and have chances to win majors, have chances to win tournaments out here. It’s a lot easier to say hey, it doesn’t really matter if you miss it or make it. At the end of the day it matters a heck of a lot to me whether that putt goes in or not.”
Scheffler was at his finest speaking about Woods, his childhood idol, who he performed alongside in a very memorable Sunday spherical at Augusta.
“It was the day he made the 10,” Scheffler mentioned, recalling the septuple-bogey Woods made on the par-3 twelfth. “That’s the factor — he’s simply a lot completely different, I believe, than the remainder of us. Like, he’s received so many golf tournaments, and he makes a ten on No. 12 at Augusta, and he birdies 5 of the final six holes.
“And it’s Sunday. I mean, it’s completely meaningless to him; like at that stage in his career, what’s the point? And for him just to step up there and completely turn it around — and I kid you not, he hit still to this day, three of the best iron shots I’ve ever seen hit coming into those last few holes, and it was just unbelievable to watch.”
It was humorous listening to Scheffler say how completely different Woods was “than the rest of us” whereas, throughout Scheffler, his friends have been saying the identical factor about him. There have been little reminders throughout Thursday’s opening spherical, too. He generously noticed the sphere a stroke with a bogey on his opening gap however then he birdied the subsequent three and birdied 10 and 11 and birdied 16 and didn’t make one other bogey the remainder of the best way. He nonetheless hasn’t shot a rating over par since final August. And whereas Scheffler isn’t more likely to pat himself on the again, it’s straightforward to see what he admires by the best way he provides compliments of his personal.
“He puts everything he has into every shot that he hits on the golf course, which I think is a really underrated skill out here,” Scheffler mentioned of Woods. He thought again to that Sunday spherical at Augusta.
“I just learned that from watching him — the way he read greens, the way he approached pitch shots and iron shots and tee shots. There was never a moment in that round where he wasn’t going at it a thousand percent, which is a lot easier I think said than done.”
If one other professional mentioned that about Scheffler, it’s secure to imagine he’d respect that flatter, too. And they’d be proper to say so.
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