Scottie Scheffler, the new face of American golf, seems like a guy you’d like to have a beer with or take a beach trip with or just have a good cry with.
Just about anything except try to beat him on the golf course these days.
Scheffler, whose arrival atop the world rankings was cemented Sunday with his 4-and-3 victory over bulldog-tough Kevin Kisner in the final of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club, was long ago anointed as a potential next big thing, his bona fides having been established as a Texas youngster much like it happened for Jordan Spieth.
It seems as if almost everyone around Dallas has a story of Scheffler as a kid, intentionally banging shots off distant flagpoles or playing like an 18-year-old when he was 8 years old. They love a good legend in Texas, and Scheffler, just 25 years old, is increasingly a part of the Lone Star State’s deep golf history.
If his contemporaries, including Viktor Hovland (six worldwide wins) and Collin Morikawa (two major championships), arrived with more flash and bang, Scheffler has arrived on his own schedule, blossoming like springtime this year.
Seven weeks ago, Scheffler had never won a PGA Tour event.
Forty-two days later, he’s won three of them and bumped Jon Rahm out of the top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking with a run that gets more impressive by the week. He’s suddenly become the PGA Tour’s version of actor Bradley Cooper, the guy who seems to do all the right things.
Plus, how can you not like a guy who cries as easily as Scheffler does and had to hug almost everyone in the gallery after his victory before he could do his obligatory winner’s interview on television?
“I don’t feel like No. 1 in the world,” Scheffler said. “I feel like the same guy I was four months ago, and I hope that doesn’t change.”
“Just competing out here is really fun for me, and just being able to win tournaments is pretty awesome. The rankings never really crossed my mind.”
Scottie Scheffler
If you haven’t already heard, the Masters is just a week away and will arrive with the usual assortment of favorites and storylines. Rory McIlroy chasing the final piece of the career Grand Slam. Justin Thomas rounding into form. Jon Rahm being Jon Rahm. Brooks Koepka. Dustin Johnson and so on.
Would you take any of them over Scheffler right now?
Why?
“He’s playing incredible golf,” Kisner said after taking his turn in front of the Scheffler bulldozer Sunday afternoon.
What stands out the most with Scheffler is how comfortable he looks doing what he’s doing. It was just a few years ago that Scheffler, who played four years at the University of Texas, was outside the ropes at the Match Play, watching McIlroy hit balls and marveling at the sound his driver made.
Now the whole world is watching him.
Scheffler insists he gets nervous, but he hides it well. There’s a looseness and athleticism to Scheffler’s swing that suggests he could have played baseball or tennis had he leaned that way, though basketball and table tennis were among his early passions.
He seems to play more by look and feel than by fitting numbers into a swing. It’s what most of the great ones have done.
Consider where Scheffler has won this year:
He broke through at the WM Phoenix Open, where half the battle is always handling the block-party environment. Then he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational at brick-hard Bay Hill. And now he’s won the Match Play, beating Ian Poulter, Matt Fitzpatrick (twice if you include a six-hole playoff to advance from pool play), Billy Horschel, Séamus Power, Dustin Johnson and Kisner.
Only 24 other golfers have been ranked No. 1 in the world, and if it’s hard to get your head around Scheffler being the 25th player to do it, that’s understandable. Phil Mickelson never reached No. 1 in his career. Suddenly, Scheffler is there, and he didn’t know it was a possibility until someone told him after the Match Play had started.
“My head is kind of spinning right now,” Scheffler said of all that’s happened.
Scheffler grew up at Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas, won the 2013 U.S. Junior Amateur, was part of three Big 12 championship teams at Texas and was a member of the 2017 Walker Cup team. He has three sisters and a family that’s more a part of him than his long, upright swing.
“I grew up wearing long pants to go practice because I wanted to be a professional golfer,” Scheffler said.
“That’s what I dreamed of. I dreamed of being out here. I’ve always been, I would say, fiercely competitive, and so for me getting out here was a goal per se. And being out here, I like competing and I enjoy the challenge of playing out here every week.
Now Scheffler sits on top of the world where the view is as wide as the Texas sky, even with tears of happiness in his eyes.
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