ATLANTA – Scottie Scheffler, who carries a plus-7 handicap, says he might have to give as many as 20 shots to some of his regular pals when he plays at home in Dallas. And, yet, he still doesn’t have to pay out very often.
“I probably don’t lose too many times,” he said, grinning sheepishly.
Incredible to think, then, that the No. 1 player in the world by a wide margin is GETTING shots on the field at this week’s Tour Championship for the third year in a row and hasn’t yet captured the season-long FedEx Cup title on the PGA Tour.
That just sounds messed up. Actually, that just sounds like golf.
Six times a winner on the PGA Tour this season, including the Masters, and also the Olympic gold medalist, Scheffler has to think that the third time is absolutely positively the charm at East Lake Golf Club. The season finale features a staggered-start format that gives the FedEx Cup points leader a two-shot lead over his nearest pursuer when the event begins Thursday.
Two shots over two-time major champion Xander Schauffele isn’t much over 72 holes, but it’s still two shots, and Scheffler has been doing just fine against his professional peers starting out even. Asked if there wasn’t just a small part of him that would welcome trailing for once instead of carrying the pressure of the lead yet again, Scheffler couldn’t say no fast enough.
“Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I want every stroke that I can get this week,” said Scheffler, who fell all the way to sixth last year when Viktor Hovland won the big prize, and finished second the year prior to Rory McIlroy. “I've experienced it on the other side, and I would much rather start a tournament with a lead than start it behind. It's as simple as that.”
It’s probably worth mentioning that Scheffler led McIlroy by six strokes heading into the final round in the 2022 Tour Championship. So a measly two strokes isn’t a very secure lead with 72 holes in the offing. In fact, it doesn’t seem right after the outstanding season the 28-year-old Texan has assembled, but this is the format and he’ll take his two strokes and run with them.
Which might be a strategy he should consider. Scheffler said he doesn’t approach this event any differently than any other, but there is no tournament that assigns a score to every player before the first tee ball is put in play. And there is no tournament that awards $25 million to the champion. Everyone is gunning for him.
How does Scheffler intend to flip the script this time? Math. “More birdies than bogeys typically helps low scores,” he deadpanned.
“At the end of the day, golf is golf,” he added. “The easiest way to solve an issue that you don't like in the game of golf is to play better. That's really all it comes down to in our game. At the end of the day, if you play good enough golf, it will take care of itself.”
Scheffler has played good enough to again be the frontrunner in the tour’s season finale. Now he has to reward himself by staying there. So, no, he isn’t giving those two shots back to the field. His buddies back home understand.
“It's funny,” Scheffler said. “I feel like a lot of times you get asked in the tournament halfway point like at a major when the cut happens, and it happened at the Olympics and some people were asking, ‘Well, do you like the position you're in kind of being the chaser?’ I was like, ‘No, I want to be winning.’
“You know, this is the best opportunity that I'll have in my career probably to win a golf tournament. I'm starting two strokes ahead of second place. That's a pretty cool place to be, really.”
Yeah, but not as cool as being there at the end.