Scottie Scheffler is having a fantastic season, winning at Augusta National, TPC Sawgrass and East Lake, as well as coming from behind to win the gold medal in Paris with a final-round score of 62 that will forever live in Olympic lore.
He's won more than $62 million this season alone. But the most ridiculous moment of the 2024 PGA Tour season came on the morning of Friday, May 17, when Louisville police arrested Scheffler just hours before the second round of the PGA Championship. Scheffler shot a 6-under 66 that day.
He and his wife, Meredith, have a son, Bennett, born May 8. For Scheffler, the No. 1 ranked player in the world, it's been a whirlwind of days, drawing comparisons to Tiger Woods and being praised for having the best season of all time. And sure enough, on the eve of the Presidents Cup, Scheffler spoke about this crazy season in the way only he can:
“Sometimes it feels like we're living in a simulation here,” Scheffler said.
“Golf sometimes makes me feel like I'm still a kid. It's not like I have a job. I make a living from golf. I married a girl I went to high school with and now we have kids, which may be even more surreal. I still have the same friends I had five or 10 years ago. Our home life hasn't changed one bit, it's just that things have changed a little bit outside.”
simulation.
There were plenty of moments this season that reminded me of the Tour's biggest events, like the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the RBC Heritage, where the best player at the end took home the trophy. It was the same at the Tour Championship, when Scheffler dominated East Lake to win the FedEx Cup and the $25 million that comes with it. It was the same at the Travelers Championship, when Scheffler seemed like an inevitability to win in Connecticut.
But Scheffler knows seven wins in a season (or eight if you include the gold medal) is unlikely to happen in a sport with so many variables, misfortunes and probabilities.
“Sometimes luck is on your side in this game and sometimes it's not. You know, Rory had some close calls. He was in a playoff last week and made an eagle on the last hole and lost, which was a tough result. He didn't lose, he was beaten. So those things can happen,” Scheffler said.
“Sometimes luck comes your way, like in my playoff with Tom Kim at Travelers. He birdied the 18th hole to get into the playoff, but then bogeyed the playoff hole. It's the little things like that that help. I remember a few years ago at Colonial, when the wind was really picking up and all the afternoon players were struggling, Sam Burns made a 40-foot putt from the fringe to beat me.
“Sometimes you have important putts or little breaks that happen, but there have been a lot of times this year where I felt like the putts just went in when I really needed them. I made a five-foot putt on the 18th hole in Paris, a lot of putts on the back nine. I made the putt on the final hole at Memorial to win. I made a lot of putts on the back nine at the Masters, in the final round at The Players, even if it wasn't on the 18th green, that were important to keep the momentum going in the round. In years past, maybe sometimes those putts would go in, but this year, for the most part, I just felt like I made a lot of those putts when I needed them.”
At the end of the day, every golf tournament comes down to putting. Results are decided on the greens, and Scheffler's 2024 season will reflect that. He switched to a mallet putter before the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which completely changed the course of history. He then went on to have an epic season that people will talk about for decades to come.
Remember when everyone was accusing Scheffler of poor putting in January and February? Well, those days are long gone. He may not be the best putter on tour now, but he's not the worst. He hits the ball so well from tee to green that an average putter is fine anyway. The fact that he led the PGA Tour in more than 40 statistical categories reflects that. But he also needs to make putts when it matters most, and he did. He made big putt after big putt from March through August, as Scheffler looked to win a simulated golf tournament, mesmerizing the golfing world while also further etching his name in the record books.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation Playing Through. Follow For more golf articles, follow us on Twitter Jack Mirko In the same way.
