Scottie Scheffler goes deep on becoming the world's best golfer: 'What's the point?'
The world No. 1 gave one of the most revealing answers of the year during his press conference on Tuesday ahead of the 153rd British Open in what turned into a therapy session of sorts for him. It was an answer that addressed just about everything but the meaning of life.
Scheffler gets introspective after question about celebrating
It all stemmed from a rather straightforward question to Scheffler (as they so often do). This one began by asking him how he defined a slump, which he rather quickly dismissed, but the re-direct struck a nerve when asked to name the longest he's celebrated a success. That's when Scheffler let us all behind the curtain.
'You work your whole life to celebrate winning a tournament for like a few minutes. It only lasts a few minutes, that kind of euphoric feeling,' he said. 'To win the Byron Nelson Championship at home, I literally worked my entire life to become good at golf, to have an opportunity to win that tournament. You win it, you celebrate, get to hug my family, my sister's there, it's such an amazing moment. Then it's like, OK, what are we going to eat for dinner? Life goes on.'
So, too, did Scheffler's answer. He was only getting started.
'Is it great to be able to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have in the game of golf? Yeah, it brings tears to my eyes just to think about, because I've literally worked my entire life to be good at this sport. To have that kind of sense of accomplishment, I think, is a pretty cool feeling. To get to live out your dreams is very special, but at the end of the day, I'm not out here to inspire the next generation of golfers. I'm not out here to inspire someone to be the best player in the world because what's the point? This is not a fulfilling life. It's fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it's not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart,' he said. 'There's a lot of people that make it to what they thought was going to fulfill them in life, and you get there, you get to No. 1 in the world, and they're like, what's the point? I really do believe that, because what is the point? Why do I want to win this tournament so bad?
"That's something that I wrestle with on a daily basis. It's like showing up at the Masters every year; it's like why do I want to win this golf tournament so badly? Why do I want to win The Open Championship so badly? I don't know because, if I win, it's going to be awesome for two minutes. Then we're going to get to the next week, hey, you won two majors this year; how important is it for you to win the FedEx Cup playoffs? And we're back here again. So we really do; we work so hard for such little moments. I'm kind of a sicko; I love putting in the work. I love getting to practice. I love getting to live out my dreams. But at the end of the day, sometimes I just don't understand the point.'
Scheffler paused here and posed a question back at the room of journalists. 'I don't know if I'm making any sense or not. Am I not? It's just one of those deals. I love the challenge. I love being able to play this game for a living. It's one of the greatest joys of my life, but does it fill the deepest wants and desires of my heart? Absolutely not.'
Rory McIlroy understands Scheffler's perspective
Rory McIlroy can relate. He won the career Grand Slam in April, becoming just the sixth player since Gene Sarazen in 1935. A childhood dream was fulfilled. But this week marks the third major since and it quickly has turned into a case of what have you done for us lately?
'That's the nature of professional golf. They do a very good job of keeping you on the hamster wheel, and you feel like it's hard to get off at times,' said McIlroy on Monday, who talked about making a New Year's resolution to have more fun and trying to enjoy his career Grand Slam achievement. 'It's been an amazing year. The fact that I'm here at Portrush with the Green Jacket, having completed that lifelong dream, as you said, I want to do my best this week to enjoy everything that comes my way and enjoy the reaction of the fans and enjoy being in front of them and playing in front of them. But at the same time, I want to win this golf tournament, and I feel like I'm very capable of doing that.'
Scheffler calls it a daily struggle to avoid making golf define him. He compartmentalizes his life in such a way so that when he leaves the golf course, he doesn't bring golf home with him. This wasn't the first time he shared the anxiety he's experienced heading into the final round at the Masters when he won. Ahead of the 2023 Masters, when his wife was pregnant and back home in Dallas, Scheffler recounted the advice one of his buddies who was staying at his rental house gave him.
'I wish I didn't want to win as much as I do. I wish it didn't matter this much to me. I wish I didn't care as much about the result and could just go out and play and enjoy it,' Scheffler said on The Bible Caddie podcast. 'My buddy said, 'Well, your victory is secure on the cross and that's really all you need to know.' I was like, OK, that's a good line. I'm going to think about that.'
Scheffler prioritizes time in the morning to read scripture, noting Numbers 24-26 as a particular passage of scripture that he reads from a devotional book on his iPad. He listens to music with Christian themes such as Need to Breathe and is strong in his faith without coming across to the masses as a Bible thumper.
'It's super rare in sports to see the top of the top, who are the best at their sport, faithfully walk with golf,' said Webb Simpson, a past U.S. Open champion, on the podcast that he co-hosts to Scheffler. 'A lot of young listeners, high school guys or even college kids around us, they are fearful that if they walk with the Lord they're going to lose their competitive edge. Somehow, somebody thought a long time ago that because you're a Christian means you're a soft competitor. But you embody a faithful man of God who is a fierce competitor.'
When Simpson asked him how he is able to do that, Scheffler gave an equally telling answer: 'I feel like God kind of created me with a little bit of extra competitiveness. Since I was a kid, whatever we were doing, I always wanted to be the best at that thing.'
He continued. 'I feel like we're called to go out to use our talent for God's glory and in my head it feels like being an extremely competitive person going out there and fighting and trying to do our best and then taking our hats off and shaking hands and being done at the end of the day.'
Scheffler says losing 'sucks'
Back at the Open media press conference, Scheffler was asked what losing is like for him.
'It sucks. I hate it. I really do,' he said. 'That's why we try to work so hard to not lose, but golf's a game where you just lose a lot more often than you win. That's just a simple part of it. In basketball or football, when there's only two guys out there, you can win a lot more than you lose.'
Scheffler referenced tennis and while he didn't have all the details correct, he pointed to a story that Roger Federer, the winner of 103 ATP titles and 20 majors, had told as graduation speaker to Dartmouth College. Federer told the students that he had only won 54 percent of all the points he had played during his career, just more than half.
'You can work harder than you thought possible and still lose,' Federer said, before adding: 'Perfection is impossible."
'Playing professional sports is a really weird thing to do, it really is," Scheffler said. "Just because we put in so much effort, we work so hard for something that's so fleeting, it really is. The feeling of winning just doesn't last that long. It just doesn't satisfy is how I would describe it. It's an unsatisfying venture.'
Scheffler should be applauded for giving all of us a rare insight into the mind of an elite golfer who has experienced the highest of highs, winning 16 times on the PGA Tour since February 2023, and yet the moment of joy is fleeting. But it is also a drug that he can't get enough of and perhaps this week he'll feel fulfilled ever-so-briefly again. Two minutes later, and it will be on to the FedEx Cup. But win or lose, euphoria or disgust, he will continue his daily struggle to not let golf define who he is.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Scottie Scheffler on becoming No. 1 golfer: 'What's the point?'
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