World No.1 Scottie Scheffler has put his car up for auction - and legendary sports commentator Jim Nantz has made the opening bid.
The money raised by the auction will go to charity Triumph Over Kid Cancer, and Nantz has put in an offer of $50,000 for Scheffler's 2012 GMC Yukon XL.
As first reported by Golfweek's Adam Schupak, Nantz made the offer at a gala for the charity in November in Houston. There, he made his bid and commented: “I’ll be more than happy to store Scottie’s car in my garage.”
While that was an impressive figure, there is still plenty of time for new offers to come in, with Heritage Auctions conducting the sale. The auction began on 6 December and runs until 28 December.
So, what will the eventual winner get for their money? Well, despite his enormous success, Scheffler is well known to golf fans for his down-to-earth, humble attitude towards the game and life in general, so it’s no surprise that the vehicle, which was initially bought by his father in 2012 before it was handed down to him after he graduated, is not particularly flashy either.
For a start, by 2022 it had a sizeable 190,000 miles on the clock, in part thanks to Scheffler using it to transport him to junior events and Monday qualifiers in the early days of his ownership. Even more notably, he drove it to that year's Masters at Augusta National, where he claimed the Green Jacket for the first time.
Even though that was Scheffler’s fourth win of 2022, his career has taken an even more spectacular trajectory since, with nine more PGA Tour victories, seven of which came earlier this year, while he also successfully defended his title at the Hero World Challenge.
Scheffler now stands third on the all-time PGA Tour career money list with earnings of over $71m, but even that vast wealth wasn’t enough to persuade him to trade the vehicle in, and he continued driving it until his son Bennett was born in May, when he took delivery of a new sponsor vehicle.
The vehicle also bears two of Scheffler’s signatures - one on the right side of the dashboard with a "First Owned Vehicle" inscription and the other on the right visor.
The charity that will benefit from the sale is one close to Scheffler’s heart, as it was founded by a childhood friend who battled osteosarcoma. Scheffler has also supported the charity in other ways, including organizing the James A. Ragan Triumph Scramble, while his "Scottie's Heroes" initiative provides golf clubs to young cancer patients. Heritage Auctions is donating its commission to the charity, too.
