Scottie Scheffler pronounced himself ready to go and expects no lingering effects from the Christmas hand injury he suffered that knocked him out of two tournaments, including the season-opening event on the PGA Tour.
Scheffler did a pre-tournament media session Tuesday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he is playing public golf for the first time since mid-December.
He also got in a pre-tournament round at nearby Cypress Point with his caddie, Ted Scott.
“It was great. I took down Ted, so I got bragging rights for a while,” Scheffler said. “Can't afford to lose to your caddie because he's just going to be reminding me that he beat me constantly so I was glad to take him down. It was a great day.
“(Wife) Meredith and (son) Bennett came out and walked a few holes with us and we had lunch and it was just a great day really. Weather was beautiful, our group was great, we had a great time. I'm just thankful for the experience. Meredith and I last night were like wow, that was just one of our favorite days. It was awesome.”
The No. 1-ranked player in the world and three-time reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year, Scheffler was set to begin the year in Hawaii at the Sentry before a Christmas Day accident in which he cut the palm of his right hand—he was making ravioli—led to a bloody kitchen and a surgical procedure.
Scheffler punctured his hand due to broken glass requiring some emergency help from a neighbor and eventually a hospital visit.
He had hoped to return two weeks ago at the American Express but decided it was prudent to wait.
“There was a lot of sitting around at first but after that I was able to get moving fairly quickly,” Scheffler said. “It was good and bad. It was frustrating to be sitting at home, not being able to play golf, but we got some good time at home just us three. It's pretty rare for me to be at home throughout the day without really having much to do. I couldn't really work out at first, there wasn't really a whole lot I could do, so it was nice uninterrupted time for us at home. But it was definitely still frustrating watching golf on TV and not being able to play.”
Scheffler said it wasn’t until early last week that he ramped up his practice to be sure there would be no “flare-up” on the road.
He explained the injury this way:
“So when you make raviolis, we wanted to make them from scratch so you've got to roll the dough and you've got to cut the dough, but we were at a rental house so we didn't have the right tools and the only thing there was a wine glass that we found ... I had my hand on top of it and it broke, which side note, I've heard nothing but horror stories since this happened about wine glasses, so be careful.
“Even if you're like me and you don't drink wine, you've got to be real careful with wine glasses. Yeah, it broke and the stem kind of got me in the hand. So it's one of those deals where like it's truly—I can't live in a bubble, like got to live my life and accidents happen. You know, it could have been a lot worse.”
Scheffler said he expects no long-term issues.
“Season debut, it's a little weird making it this late in the year, but good to be back,” he said. “Everything's feeling good. It's nice to be here at Pebble. Definitely excited to play. Feeling well rested. Overall feeling good.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Scottie Scheffler, With Healed Hand, Is Back at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
