Scottie Scheffler is about as efficient with his words as he is with his golf shots. He speaks as he swings — with precision. Which means that when he says something that grabs your ear, it’s worth listening twice as hard.
Enter Tuesday’s press conference ahead of the Players Championship. While other pressers — namely that of PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, who preceded Scheffler at the mic — focused on the limbo of the deal-or-no-deal between the PGA Tour and the backers of LIV Golf, Scheffler’s focus was squarely on the action between the ropes; his own golf specifically.
And then he dropped this piece of wisdom: “I feel like every time you’re playing golf you’re kind of looking into a mirror and learning more and more about yourself.”
That came in response to a question about whether it was tougher to win coming from behind or to win in a blowout. Scheffler shrugged that off; he’s used to deflecting questions that ask him to contextualize his own accomplishments. But that insight — that you learn something every time you play — spoke directly to the beauty and meaning of his chosen sport. “You’re trying to manage your emotions, manage your skill set, manage your way around the golf course,” he added. If playing golf means learning about yourself, then what has Scheffler found out?
Last year in this event, Scheffler said, he managed plenty. A stiff neck had him getting in-round treatment and improvising his swing shot-to-shot. He took pride in how he responded en route to his second consecutive Players victory.
“I would say last year this whole tournament was one of the best performances I’ve had in my career, for sure,” he said, an unusually candid admission. “I think the way I played injured Friday and Saturday to just keep myself in the tournament took a lot of fight, a lot of heart.”
The way he spoke about TPC Sawgrass was telling, too. If you learn something from the way you play, the way you prepare says something about you, too. The mindset you bring says something. Scheffler seems to appreciate the challenge of this Pete Dye chessboard. It’s an opportunity to test what he’s capable of.
“I think there’s a lot of genius in the golf course,” he said, ticking through the holes in his mind. No. 1 demands a fade off the tee and a draw into the green, while No. 2 asks for a draw off the tee, Nos. 4 and 5 a fade off the tee, Nos. 6 and 7 a draw, and so on.
“It calls for different shots on each hole. You have to work the ball both ways. You have to play shots,” he said with admiration. And year to year the challenge is different.
“On a soft year, if it’s soft and windy, you got to really control your golf ball, hit a lot of chippy shots, control your spin around the greens, and then if it’s firm and windy, you also got control your spin but a different way at a different height. And then if it’s not windy and firm, you know you got to work the ball into the pins because the greens are firm, and I mean, the golf course can just challenge you in a variety of ways, and I think that’s what makes it a great test.”
How he sees the game, too, is telling. One reporter asked Scheffler what golf means to him; his answer was simple but specific.
“One of the things I love doing at home with my friends is going out and playing golf,” he said. “It’s pretty rare for you to be able to spend that much uninterrupted time with somebody, and I feel like when you’re gambling or having fun with your buddies, it’s just one of the most joyful things you can do.
“It’s a thing I love. I love being able to compete. I love being able to joke around, laugh at ourselves and go out and have fun and compete a little bit. Golf’s great for that.”
It would be incomplete to talk about Scheffler’s relationship to his career without mentioning his faith; it informs his approach to competition and thus it was interesting to hear him reference results as outside of his control.
“My goal is to be as prepared as I possibly can be when I step up on to the first tee, and from there I just can go out and enjoy competing and not worry about the results because they’re already set,” he said.
That is, of course, easier said than done. Scheffler’s only human, which means that putting his best foot forward, pressure and context aside, remains his ongoing focus. And so the way he measures success has much more to do with process than it does results.
“When I think about success, I don’t think about being the best player in the world. I think about my attitude on the golf course and my preparation. Those are the two things that I focus on the most. If I can be prepared when I step on the first tee and if I can have a good attitude over each and every shot, that for me is a successful week,” Scheffler said. So how has that been going thus far this season, through the unexpected setback of a hand injury?
Scheffler used last week’s Arnold Palmer as an example.
“I would say for about 60 holes of the tournament I had a pretty good attitude,” he said. “I think I let Bay Hill maybe get to me a touch more than I should have.” Here he was referencing the icy greens and the unpredictability of golf. “[I] hit the fairway, got a mud ball, and I’m like, ‘how the heck can you get a mud ball when the greens are dead?’ and then now I’m standing there hitting over a pond and I have mud on my ball and I have absolutely no idea where it’s going to go.”
Sixty holes out of 72 means Scheffler’s doing pretty well. But it’s hardly 100 percent. “The other 12 are some things mentally maybe where I wish I could have had some stuff back,” he concluded. In other words, there’s room for improvement.
So if playing golf means looking into a mirror, it’s clear Scheffler’s mostly pleased with what he sees. He seems somebody looking back at him who loves to compete. Who loves the challenge. Who stays focused on the little stuff. Who’s trying to appreciate his extensive accomplishments without letting them affect his process. Who’s happy to be here but isn’t just happy to be here.
There must be some satisfaction in glancing at your reflection and realizing that the best in the world is looking back. But in selecting a mirror Scheffler seized on something profound, something that separates it from a camera: It’s incapable of reflecting the past. It shows you as you are in that exact moment. Which means that what you did last year or the year before doesn’t do you much good.
“Last year is last year,” he said. He feels grateful for that success, he added. He lived lived “a full lifetime” in just a year. But now? “My goal is to be as prepared as possible when I step up on the first tee and then I want to have a good attitude when I go out and play over each shot.”
It’s an approach that has reflected well on him thus far.
Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
