Moments after Scottie Scheffler tapped in a par putt on the final hole of The American Express to clinch a four-stroke victory, he was asked what it meant to win for a 20th time on the PGA Tour, making him the youngest to accomplish this feat since Tiger Woods.
“It means a lot,” he replied in a tone which might’ve suggested otherwise. “It was a challenging week. I did a good job of staying patient and executing when I needed to. It was another really solid day out on the course.”
Ho-hum. Just another solid day. No biggie.
Perhaps the world’s No. 1-ranked player goes home after a win like this, looks at himself in the mirror and unleashes a torrent of bravado. If so, he’s got the rest of us fooled.
That’s because there appears to be no ego in Scheffler whatsoever. He seems nonplussed at his own accomplishments, more than happy to deflect the credit even though he’s the one swinging the clubs.
In fact, in one post-round interview on Sunday afternoon, Scheffler only became excited not on the subject of his victory, but when speaking about 18-year-old final-round playing partner Blades Brown, over whom he gushed like a proud big brother.
But when it came to a 20th win, guaranteeing him lifetime membership on the PGA Tour and putting him over the $100-million mark in career earnings?
“To be honest,” he said, “I had not really thought about that very much.”
Contrast this with Jason Day, who finished tied for runner-up honors this weekend.
This isn’t meant to impugn the Aussie, who is well within his right to celebrate a career-long accomplishment, just as most of us would in his position.
“My 100th top-10 of my career,” Day beamed after the round. “So that was a milestone that I was very interested in, like very excited to get to.”
He should be. That’s a massive achievement.
But it also tells us something about Scheffler, who didn’t seem too concerned with reaching a big fat round number and certainly wasn’t interested in talking about milestones.
His reaction to his own success helps enforce a working theory about what separates Scheffler from the other two best players of the past quarter-century – Woods and Rory McIlroy.
No, this isn’t to suggest that Scottie is better or more accomplished or anything else, other than… different.
Folklore or not, the story of Tiger growing up with a poster of Jack Nicklaus on his wall and a stated goal from a young age to break his major championship record at least has some semblance of validity to it. At age 9, Rory was interviewed on BBC cameras as an intrepid young golfer, claiming his career ambition was to “turn pro and win all of the majors.”
Those objectives were always results-based, always dependent on defeating all of the other players and piling up as many trophies as possible.
Similar stories about Scheffler are nonexistent. If we listen to him, we only hear thoughts on performance, not results. There’s no talk about major records or career slams, only about hitting the very next shot to the best of his ability.
Remember, this is a player who famously said the following at last year’s Open Championship:
“Is it great to be able to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have in the game of golf? Yeah, it brings tears to my eyes just to think about because I’ve literally worked my entire life to be good at this sport. To have that kind of sense of accomplishment, I think, is a pretty cool feeling. To get to live out your dreams is very special, but at the end of the day, I’m not out here to inspire the next generation of golfers. I’m not out here to inspire someone to be the best player in the world because what’s the point? This is not a fulfilling life. It’s fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it’s not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart.”
Of course, the irony meter jumped to 11 just a few days later, when the player who said winning isn’t fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart went on to win that tournament.
What gets Scheffler excited is competing, not winning.
“I love playing golf,” he added last summer. “I love being able to compete. I love living out my dreams.”
None of which makes his perspective more right or wrong, better or worse than players such as Woods or McIlroy or Day. Again, it’s just… different.
That dichotomy – the focus on process over results – might lead to Scheffler becoming one of the most highly decorated players of all-time someday. Or the same mindset could leave him bored without any tangible goals to tick off a checklist.
On Sunday evening, after that historic victory, Scheffler was asked what counts as an existential question in his world: Do you have to win to have fun?
The 20-time champion thought about it for a second, then carefully offered a truncated answer that still said so much.
“I would hope not. But winning is a lot more fun than losing.”
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