The historic Masters Tournament, held every year in the first full week of April, effectively sets the schedule for the PGA Tour. The dates fall to April 11-14 this year — the first time since 2019 — meaning an extra tournament on the road to Augusta National.
As a result, the top players are having to make some adjustments — World No. 1 and 2022 Masters champion Scottie Scheffler is at the Houston Open, trying his hardest to win but also fine-tuning his game with an eye on slipping into the coveted green jacket again.
Steady Scottie
His title defence came apart last year, with the American conceding that he “just didn’t have it”. But it’s a measure of Scheffler’s consistency — an increasingly recurrent theme in his career — that he still finished in a tie for 10th, eight strokes behind winner Jon Rahm.
Indeed, it’s Scheffler’s quality of invariably being in contention that makes him so remarkable. Elite sport is played between the ears — and golf, because of the extreme levels of precision it demands in a changeable environment, is a severe mental test. Scheffler’s ability to treat success and failure alike has allowed him to consistently deal with these emotional challenges.
Just weeks ago — right before he earned $8.5 million for winning two big trophies in a span of 10 days and erased any questions on whether he deserved to be ranked No. 1 — he spoke about how quickly he can forget the past, win or lose.
“I don’t celebrate accomplishments that well. I don’t feel like I dwell on failures that much either,” Scheffler said. “If you ask my wife, she would say I need to celebrate more.”
The celebration after he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational involved cheeseburgers in the clubhouse with his family, followed by a two-hour drive to the TPC Sawgrass. The day after Scheffler became the only player in 50 editions of The Players Championship to win back to back, he was texting his swing coach about their practice schedule.
The 6’3” American has a big game, but it’s guided by a process-oriented approach.
“I try not to place too much emphasis on results, good or bad,” he said. “I show up to try and perform my best and hopefully win. But when I stand on the tee on Thursday, I’m not thinking about the trophy ceremony at the end of the week. I’m just trying to be committed to the shot.”
Leading the world
Scheffler’s latest victory at the Players pushed him over $50 million for his PGA Tour earnings in just five years. He has been at No. 1 since last May, and his gap over everyone else is the largest since Dustin Johnson seven years ago. Barring injury, he has a chance to become the first player since Tiger Woods in 2009 to hold the No. 1 ranking for an entire calendar year.
Scheffler is playing great golf, measured as much by his elite ball-striking and alarming consistency as the results. He now has nine victories against the strongest fields — one of them a small field in the Bahamas — in the 25 months since he won his first PGA Tour title. Equally impressive is his 65% rate of finishing in the top 10.
Last year, he had the best statistical season since Woods, leading the tour in all the important categories from the tee to the green, along with scoring. He had the seventh-lowest adjusted scoring average (68.63) in PGA Tour history — the top six belong to Woods — and finished outside the top 10 only six times in 23 tournaments.
To stay emotionally stable, Scheffler doesn’t spend much time on social media. He also takes precautions not to listen or read about himself.
“Let’s say I remember all the good things. Then I walk around with a big head thinking, ‘This is how great I am.’ That’s not good, either,” Scheffler said before his most recent run. “If I read the bad stuff, that’s all I’m going to remember. ‘Scottie can’t putt. He hadn’t won in a year. Is he the best player in the world?’ It’s a losing game.”
Mostly what keeps him grounded are the people around him. His mother has been a chief operating officer for law firms in New York and Dallas, and his father stayed at home with Scheffler and his three sisters.
His wife, Meredith, is pregnant with their first child, due around the end of April. She’s the one who told Scheffler on Sunday morning of the 2022 Masters, when he woke up with tears and self-doubt, “Who are you to say that you are not ready?” He wound up winning his first Major.
The Woods comparisons
Golf is always looking for the heir to the throne, and so it’s no surprise that Scheffler has drawn comparisons with Woods. But the 27-year-old has not let it get to his head, aware that Woods spent more than 13 years as No. 1, including a record 281 consecutive weeks.
“Anytime you can be compared to Tiger is really special,” Scheffler said. “But I mean, the guy stands alone. I’ve got 14 more Majors and 70-some PGA Tour events to catch up. So I’m going to continue to plod along, try and stay as even-keeled as I can.”
Scheffler also knows that while his consistency continues to draw admiration, he needs to win more, especially at the Majors. With the sport divided after the advent of LIV Golf, financed by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, only the four Majors see the full roster of great players, and it’s at these iconic tournaments that Scheffler must prove his superiority.
To do that, he must ensure that his putting stays solid. Long known to struggle on the greens, Scheffler switched from a blade to a mallet putter recently. “I like not having to line the ball up,” he said. “I line this putter up well in the middle of the face. It’s very good visually.”
But as important to Scheffler as the switch to a mallet style was a redressing of his mental game. “It’s not like I’ve been a bad putter my whole career,” he said. “I’ve just gone through a tough stretch. I’m still working on the same fundamentals. Golf is a hard game. ... The more free and loose I can play, especially on the greens, usually the better off I am.”
Scheffler’s newfound strength with the mallet putter may have his competitors nervous, but he will know that Augusta’s unforgiving, undulating greens will be a fierce test. What he will also know, however, is that he has battled doubts and mastered them previously.
A second green jacket, which will double his Majors tally to two, will confirm his status as the current undisputed top dog in golf. But he will not be getting ahead of himself. When he stands on the tee on April 11, the only thing he will be thinking about will be his first shot.
