LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Life is pretty sweet these days for Scottie Scheffler.
“I was sitting there with a newborn in my arms and the green jacket in the closet,” he said on Tuesday during his pre-tournament press conference ahead of the 106th PGA Championship.
The world No. 1 has won in four of his last five starts, including the Masters in April, but celebrated an even greater life moment when he and wife Meredith welcomed their first child, a son, Bennett, to the world on May 8.
“It was a wild ride,” Scheffler said. “Extremely proud of Meredith after watching her go through that. It’s nuts. I’m glad it was her going through it and not me because I don’t know if I could have done it.”
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Nor was it easy to leave home on Monday morning.
“I miss him like crazy,” he said. “I told my son as I was leaving, I was like, I don’t want to leave you right now, but I need to. I’m called to do my job to the best of my ability, and I felt like showing up Wednesday night wouldn’t really be doing myself a service this week when it comes to playing and competing in the tournament, so I had to show up, especially with the weather forecast, showing up, being prepared and ready to play and being back home as quick as I can.”
Added Scheffler: “This is a major championship week, and this is what I practice and prepare for is to play my best at these events, and hopefully that trend will continue.”
About the only thing to slow down Scheffler’s dominant run of late has been the birth of Bennett. Scheffler won the Masters and RBC Heritage during “Baby Watch” but then shut it down to be at home. He typically would have played the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in his hometown of Dallas and the Wells Fargo Championship, a signature event, last week.
But Scheffler said he didn’t expect his game to be rusty. He’s been playing his fair share of money games at home to simulate competition and stay sharp.
“I was able to practice and play plenty at home. Obviously the last week was a bit different with our son coming. But yeah, I would say three weeks is probably a bit of a longer break than I would usually take,” Scheffler said. “But yeah, definitely rested going into this week for sure. I don’t really feel like any rust has accumulated.”
There is one other curveball for Scheffler as he attempts to become the first player since Jordan Spieth in 2015 – and only the fifth player since 1960 – to win the first two majors of the year. Caddie Ted Scott receiving an excused absence from carrying the bag during Saturday’s third round. Scott’s 17-year-old daughter is graduating from high school and Scheffler gave him the day off to attend.
“Teddy is going home Friday night, coming back Saturday evening after the graduation — or probably Saturday late night, I’m sure they’ll do a little celebration afterward,” Scheffler said. “That’s something we talked about from the beginning of our relationship was family always comes first, and it’s the same thing for me as it is for my caddie. It was a pretty easy decision. He told me at the beginning of this year that that was the date that it was, so I got a backup caddie lined up.”
That would be Tour chaplain Brad Payne. Asked if he would be using one of his buddies who stayed with him during the Masters while Meredith was back home in Dallas awaiting the birth of their baby, Scheffler smiled and said of Payne, “I trust him to rake a bunker more than my buddies.”
