Scottie Scheffler uses high numbers on his golf balls for a reason
Scottie Scheffler's golf balls are among the easiest to identify because of the numbers. Since his early days on the PGA Tour, he uses only golf balls marked by the numbers 5, 6, 7 or 8.
The change was prompted by Scheffler hitting the wrong ball in college — twice.
One of those occasions is known by now. His coach at Texas, John Fields, last year on the 'Subpar' podcast told the story of Scheffler and Beau Hossler playing an event in Lubbock, Texas, when Hossler walked past the first golf ball in the fairway assuming his was farther up. Only after Scheffler hit did they realize he hit Hossler's golf ball.
Fields referred to it as an 'almost fight.'
The other time was at a college tournament in Arizona.
'I hit it in the desert,' Scheffler said. 'I looked at the ball in the bush. I said, 'Hey guys, I'm going to mark and identify it.' I marked it, picked it up, looked at it and said, 'Oh, cool, Titleist 4.' I put it back down in the bush.'
What followed is a shot Scheffler described as one of his best, somehow getting out of the bush and onto the green. He went to mark the ball on the green, picked it up and noticed the ball had an Arizona logo on it.
'My ball is sitting clean in the desert,' Scheffler said. 'I told my coach, 'I'm sorry. I marked it and identified it and it's not my ball.' There's not much to say.'
But it clearly annoyed him, and it lingered.
'When I got on tour,' Scheffler said, 'I saw somebody only using higher numbers, and I said, 'Let's do that.''
A new year
Scottie Scheffler and Nelly Korda have endlessly preached moving forward without dwelling too much on the past, and one only has to consider the results.
At this time a year ago, they had combined to win nine times, each winning the first major of the year. Korda's victory in the Chevron Championship was her fifth in a row to tie an LPGA record. Scheffler won four out of five during one particularly torrid stretch.
Both now are 0-for-2025.
Scheffler's season was slow to start because of minor surgery to the palm of his right hand. He still has five top-10 finishes in his eight tournaments. Korda has gone four straight events out of the top 10, not unusual because she had a streak of five tournaments out of the top 10 a year ago.
It was a minor victory to make the cut at the Chevron, particularly after opening with a 77.
'Walking onto 8 tee on Friday, I was 7 over. So I'm proud of my fight,' Korda said Sunday after she tied for 14th. 'Obviously, I have a lot to work on. Last year was last year. Such an amazing year, but it's in the past. It's not going to help me with my future.'
The words ring familiar with what Scheffler has said since he started the season in February. Both remain No. 1 in the world and are not in immediate danger of losing that.
Scheffler is playing in the CJ Cup Byron Nelson this week, the start of a busy stretch in which he has six tournaments in eight weeks, including two majors.
Medinah Makeover
Geoff Ogilvy sees one big advantage from his design company OCM renovating the No. 3 course at Medinah in time for the Presidents Cup next year. It has more to do with Ogilvy as a proud golf course architect than his appointment as captain of the International team.
The first real competition will be match play, not a major.
Score is kept by holes won, not how many under (or over) par.
The last time Medinah held the world's best players was the 2019 BMW Championship, when Justin Thomas finished at 25-under 263 for a three-shot victory. That was seven shots lower than what Tiger Woods shot when he won the 2006 PGA Championship at Medinah.
'I think the golf world in general are a bit too focused on score relative to par deciding whether a course is good or bad, and it's really arbitrary where you put par,' Ogilvy said Tuesday. 'So I don't think it really matters, but everybody does focus on it.'
With match play, Ogilvy believes, more attention will be on how the course plays, the decisions it requires and the shots that are hit.
'Having a match play event the first time anybody goes there is really unique, and I think a unique opportunity for the work that we did for Medinah,' he said. 'It feels like it's going to ask some tough questions, but the courses that ask tough questions usually have enjoyable results to watch and play.
'Hopefully it turns out well, and it is nice.'
LIV and OWGR?
Sportico is reporting that LIV Golf and the Official World Golf Ranking are in 'serious discussions' about ranking points for the Saudi-funded league of 54 players.
Still unclear is whether LIV has submitted a new application with the OWGR, after withdrawing its application a year ago when the ranking board did not see a way forward without changes.
The biggest problem the OWGR found was measuring some two dozen other tours around the world against LIV, the only league that had a set (and small) roster for an entire season.
Since LIV withdrew its OWGR application in March 2024, Greg Norman has been replaced as LIV CEO by Scott O'Neil, while Peter Dawson retired as OWGR chief and was replaced by former Masters champion Trevor Immelman.
The OWGR typically has a meeting of the technical committee each July at the British Open, the final major of the year.
Divots
Nine players at LIV Golf Korea competed at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club when it hosted the Presidents Cup 10 years ago. … India has another spot on the European tour schedule. The DP World India Championship will be held Oct. 16-19 at Delhi Golf Club with a $4 million purse, the largest ever for a European tour event in India. … Paula Creamer is returning as an assistant captain, this time for Angela Stanford, at the 2026 Solheim Cup in the Netherlands. Stanford previously announced Kristy McPherson as one of her assistants. … The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is honoring the parents of the late Grayson Murray with its 'Survivors of Suicide Loss Lifesaver Award.' Eric and Terry Murray will receive the award Thursday at the organization's annual gala in New York. … The PGA Tour Champions is adding a tournament to the 2026 schedule. The Jefferson Lehigh Valley Classic will be held the last week in September in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Stat of the week
During Elections
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In his six individual starts on the PGA Tour, Rory McIlroy has won three times and earned $13,257,558. In his six starts in the LIV Golf League, Joaquin Niemann has won three times and earned $12,604,524.
Final word
'Going back to Portrush is going to be incredible. Rory going back as the Masters champion now is going to take a little bit of heat off me again, so I'm pretty happy with that.' — Shane Lowry, who won the British Open in 2019 the last time it was at Royal Portrush.
___
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
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