Scottie Scheffler is a human cyborg but he is good for golf

Telegraph

21-07-2025

Scottie Scheffler annihilated the opposition, and then turned his focus on the media. 'I think we live now in a day and age where clickbait is kind of what people look for,' the American observed in his press conference, shortly after winning the 153rd Open at Portrush by four strokes.
'You can shorten a five-minute clip into three words. I think it really underestimates what I was trying to communicate. Maybe I didn't do as effective of a job as I hoped to in communicating that.'
The American was referring, of course, to the pre-tournament press conference he gave last Monday, which made headlines around the world. In it, the world No 1 confessed to feeling a certain amount of existential angst, saying golf was ' not a fulfilling life ' and that he was 'not out here to inspire someone to be the best player in the world because what's the point?'
Scheffler was accused in some quarters of being disrespectful to the game which had made him a millionaire. So disrespectful, in fact, that in some eyes he was not good for the game of golf. Was it not enough that he bludgeoned his opponents into submission with remorselessly consistent golf from the gods, he had to then say that he did not really care about it?
Well, on the first point, there is no denying it. Scheffler is playing golf from the gods. His fellow professionals can see it and they acknowledge it. As Rory McIlroy observed, following his third-round 66, when asked to assess his chances of overhauling Scheffler from six shots behind: 'Scottie Scheffler is… inevitable. Even when he doesn't have his best stuff, he's just so solid. He doesn't make mistakes.'
So it proved on Sunday. McIlroy's only hope of victory was to get out of the traps quickly and put some scoreboard pressure on Scheffler. But in the end, it was the American who landed the first blow with a birdie on his opening hole. It sent Scheffler seven shots clear of the local hero and sucked the air right out of Portrush. Game over.
Scheffler has now closed out 10 straight 54-hole leads. He is, as McIlroy said, inevitable. Like the T1000, the shape-shifting Terminator cyborg who cannot be killed off, the world No 1 just keeps on coming.
It was no surprise to hear all the comparisons with Tiger Woods afterwards. 'I never thought in my lifetime I'd see a player as close to Tiger as this man currently is,' said veteran caddie Jim 'Bones' Mackay, who worked with Phil Mickelson for 25 years and saw Woods' dominance up close.
'Honestly, I think if Scottie's feet stayed stable, and his swing looked like Adam Scott's, we'd be talking about him in the same breath as Tiger Woods,' Shane Lowry agreed.
Scottie Scheffler darts in another approach shot 🔥 pic.twitter.com/n8R8tU5V9y
— Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) July 20, 2025
But there is no denying just how good Scheffler is. Whether he is good for the game golf is more difficult to answer, but there is no reason on earth he should be shot down for what he said on Monday.
Scheffler was not being disrespectful to the game. He admitted in that same press conference that he was 'living out his dreams' playing professional golf and that it brought 'tears to his eyes' just thinking about the chance to deliver on the years of hard graft he had put in.
Nor did he say he did not want to inspire the next generation. He said he was not doing it to inspire the next generation. There is a big difference.
The point Scheffler was trying to make – and which he repeated on Sunday in the wake of his dominant win – was that there was more to life than golf. Scheffler is a devout Christian. He is a husband and a father. What he was saying was that his God and his family were more important to him than the game, and that he struggled to reconcile the contradiction of working so hard at something which only gave him such fleeting highs. There is nothing wrong with any of that.
Scheffler cares deeply about the game. You could see the emotion in him when he went to celebrate with his wife and son Bennett on the 18th green on Sunday.
Scheffler is great for the game. Ok, he is not the most exciting player on earth. He does not have a highlights reel like Tiger or Rory. He is not a sexy golfer in that sense – as much as he might look like a bearded Elvis Presley. That's fine. There is room for all types in the game. What he is is a decent human being.
Jordan Spieth, who has known Scheffler since he broke through as a junior, reckons he might be unique in not courting publicity or attention. 'Scottie doesn't care to be a superstar,' he said. 'He's not transcending the game like Tiger did. He's not bringing it to a non-golf audience necessarily. He doesn't want to go do the stuff that a lot of us do, corporately, anything like that. I'm thinking about so many other sports, and Nikola Jokic is the only guy I can think of that's a superstar that's equally unassuming in any sport in the modern era.'
🚨🗣️⛳️ #NEW — Spieth on Scheffler: "He doesn't care to be a superstar. He's not transcending the game like Tiger did. He's not bringing it to a non-golf audience necessarily… doesn't want to go do the stuff that a lot of us go do…"
(Via @GOLF_com)
pic.twitter.com/INYSy16Des
— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) July 20, 2025
But don't take it from Spieth. McIlroy, Scheffler's vanquished opponent, agreed wholeheartedly. 'He is the bar that we're all trying to get to,' McIlroy admitted. 'And yeah, he's a very worthy winner. Also, he's a great person, and I think he's a wonderful ambassador for our game as well. I'm really happy for him and Meredith and his family.'