Scottie Scheffler’s 2024 was so good, the expectations for his follow-up year almost seem unfair.
Especially after a Christmas dinner incident prompted emergency hand surgery in late December, which delayed his season debut.
In a Masters conference call Wednesday, the world No. 1 revealed he’s still getting his groove back, but feels closer to the player who has drawn Tiger Woods comparisons each week he tees it up.
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“I think it would be silly to say that it didn't set me back a little bit, because I had to take a good amount of time off," said the defending Masters champion. “And I mean, I’m a right-handed golfer, so any sort of injury that you have to that hand, especially a surgical one, I think is going to have some sort of effect. I think it’d be silly to say that it didn’t set me back a little bit, but at the end of the day, it’s one of those things where, you know, accidents happen.
"I’m going to live my life. I can't live in a bubble. We were literally making Christmas dinner and sustained an injury. That’s the stuff that happens.”
The surgery, though, impacted more than just his performance inside the ropes.
“Not only does it affect my hand, which is getting very close to 100%, but it affects the rest of how the body works,” Scheffler said, “because I wasn’t able to get in the gym and do the things I normally do and practice the way that I normally practice.”
This season, Scheffler has still played well despite not returning to the winner’s circle after a year in which he had seven official victories. In five starts, his worst finish is a T25 in Phoenix and his best a T3 at the Genesis Invitational. Most of his strokes-gained stats are down from 2024, but he expects those to climb back up.
“Each day, my hand continues to improve,” the 28-year-old said. “My body continues to get back to where it needs to be. And you know, I think my swing is coming around as well. So I’m definitely excited about the improvements that I’m making. The results this year have been decent. I feel like I’m really close to playing some really nice golf again.”
Maybe everything will come together in three weeks as he tries to win his third Masters in four years. Yes, the expectations are high, but even Scheffler knows failure in golf happens much more than success.
“I think anytime you don’t play up to your expectations, it’s frustrating," Scheffler said. “So with the game of golf, I’m getting frustrated probably about 95% of the time. This year, I definitely felt that my ball-striking hasn’t been as good as it has been the last few years, and I felt like that was what was holding me back the last couple weeks.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Scottie Scheffler: ‘Frustrating’ Not Meeting Expectations, but Getting Healthier.
