Scottie Scheffler: golf’s straight man grabs attention in most unexpected way

For 27 years, 10 months and 26 days. The most interesting thing about Scottie Scheffler was his golf. And since he paid for that, you might think it should be enough. But the truth is that since Scheffler rose to the top of the world rankings in March 2022, the game has demanded more from him. The problem is, besides his faith, his family, and his attachment to a beat-up old 2012 GMC Yukon, he doesn’t have much else to give. Whisper it, but the truth is that many people in the game worry that Scheffler, who many consider the best player of his generation, is just a little too boring to carry the sport.

And then on Friday morning on his way through the gate to Valhalla, he decided to take a detour into the west lane. Last month, Scheffler explained that he believed his win at the Masters was intentional because God “set today’s plans many years ago, and there was nothing I could do to mess them up.” Either the Lord also takes his marching orders from the Kentucky traffic cops, or this is more proof, if we needed it, that he moves in mysterious ways.

You’ll find Scheffler at the top of virtually every list the PGA Tour maintains, from average scores, strokes gained and greens in regulation, to top-12 finishes and money earned, but you’d have to go a long, long, long way to get there the field before you singled him out as the man most likely to be led away in handcuffs to have his mugshot taken. There are all kinds of characters in the Tour, with all the usual human vices, but Scheffler is not one of them. The man is as square as a bogey on the scorecard and straighter than Zach Johnson from the tee.

Scheffler’s secret always seems to be that he is so arranged. Golf drives everyone a little crazy in the end, but his attitude toward the game is about as healthy as it gets. He says it’s what he does, not who he is, and it’s only third on the list of things that matter to him. First, his wife Meredith, whom he met in high school and married after college, and second, his religion. It just got brought down again because he became a father last week. “My priorities are going to change here very soon,” he said at Augusta National. “My son or daughter will now be the main priority, along with my wife, so golf will probably be fourth in line.”

Scheffler even promised he would quit the tournament if his wife gave birth while he was playing, and those who know him say he would have been as good as his word. He is nothing if not consistent. He’s had the same coach since he was a little kid, the same girl since he was a bigger one. Until 2023, he still drove the same car his father gave him in college. He once described his perfect day as a slow morning with his wife, a game of pickleball in the afternoon and dinner with friends in the evening. The menu, he said, would probably be the same as always because “I could eat the same meals every day of my life.”

It has left the rest of us scrambling for a position on the man. His father was a stay-at-home dad, his mother worked in a law firm, and he graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in finance. He has a quirky swing, he once muttered “can’t you shut up for 30 seconds?” under his breath when a spectator shouted at him during his backswing (and promptly decided never to speak of the gallery again) and he burst into tears when he was beaten in the foursomes at the Ryder Cup. There isn’t much story for the commercial team to work with.

Which is more important than necessary. ESPN’s ratings for the first round of this year’s Masters were the highest in a decade, while CBS’s ratings for the final round were the third-lowest in history. It would be a bit stiff to say it was Scheffler’s fault, but his win, which seemed inevitable by the time he reached the back nine, was a hard sell to a wider audience.

The shame is that his wave is completely irresistible. The man hasn’t shot a round above par all year. He’s only just won the Masters, and people are already talking about whether or not he has a real shot at winning the calendar’s Grand Slam.

He plays so well that people even compare him to Tiger Woods, even though their playing is about the only thing they have in common. Or at least it was. Because, of course, Woods himself has been involved in a number of traffic incidents in his time, the most memorable of which was when his ex-wife chased him out of the house and smashed the rear window of his SUV with a golf club before taking the total damage. crash into a tree.

While one of the charges was classified as a misdemeanor at the time of writing, the outcome of Scheffler’s tryst with police appears to be, according to the official report, that he caused irreparable damage to the $80 pants worn by the officer who tried to stop him from making the turn. Which shows the difference between them.