Scottie Scheffler It’s been a ridiculous season. He won Augusta NationalTPC Sawgrass, and East Lake. They also attacked from behind Winning a Gold Medal in ParisHe shot 62 in the final round, which will forever go down in Olympic history.
He won more than $62 million this season alone. But the most absurd moment of his 2024 PGA Tour season came on Friday morning, May 17, when Louisville police arrested Scheffler Just a few hours before your second round PGA ChampionshipScheffler shot a 6-under 66 on the day.
He and his wife Meredith also had a baby boy, Bennett, who came into the world on May 8. It’s been a whirlwind for the world No. 1 player, as he Comparison to Tiger Woods While he has been recognized for having one of the best seasons ever, there is no doubt that he has done that. So, on the eve of this season Presidents CupScheffler described this crazy season the way only he can.
“Sometimes I feel like I’m almost living in a simulation,” Scheffler said.
“I still feel like a kid sometimes because I play golf. I don’t have a real job that I go to. I make a living playing golf. I’m married to the girl I dated in high school, and now we have a kid, which is probably even more unrealistic. We still have the same friends that we had five to ten years ago. Life hasn’t changed at all for us at home. It’s just that things are a little different here.”
A simulation.
At times this season, it felt like the Tour was following suit at its biggest events, such as the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the RBC Heritage, where the best player eventually emerged with the trophy. You could say the same thing about the Tour Championship, where Scheffler beat East Lake to win the FedEx Cup and the $25 million that came with it. The Travelers Championship felt similar — it felt like Scheffler was destined to win in Connecticut.
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Still, Scheffler realizes that seven wins in a season — eight if you include the gold medal — are rare, even more so in a sport with so many variables, unfortunate chances and probabilities.
“Sometimes in this game the breaks go in your favor, and sometimes they don’t. You know, Rory had some close calls. He had a playoff last week, and a guy eagled the last hole to beat him, and that’s a tough deal. He didn’t lose, he got beaten. So that can happen,” Scheffler said.
“Sometimes, the breaks fall in your favor, like when Tom Kim and I were in a playoff at the Travelers. He birdied 18 to get into the playoff, but then he made bogey on the playoff hole. Sometimes little things like that can help. I remember Sam Burns making a 40-foot shot from the fringe to beat me at Colonial a few years ago, on a day when all the players were struggling in the afternoon because the winds got so strong.
“Sometimes, it’s a crucial putt or a little break here or there, and a lot of times this year, I felt I made the putts when I really needed it. I made a 5-footer on 18 in Paris and made a lot of putts on that back nine. I made a putt on the last hole to win the Memorial. And the back nine at the Masters, the final round at The Players, I made a lot of putts that weren’t necessarily on the 18th green, but a lot of putts that were crucial to keeping the momentum going in the round. In past years, maybe those putts went in sometimes, but this year, I felt that, for the most part, I made a lot of putts when I needed to.”
After all, every golf tournament depends on putting. Results are determined on the greens, and Scheffler’s 2024 season reflects that. He switched to a mallet putter before the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which completely changed the course of history. He then played a season that people will talk about for decades to come.
Remember when everyone criticized Scheffler for his poor putting in January and February? Well, those days are long gone. He may not be the best putter on Tour anymore, but he’s not one of the worst putters either. He hits the ball so well from tee to green that he hardly needs to be an average putter anyway. The fact that he leads the PGA Tour in over 40 statistical categories shows that. But he still needs to make putts when they matter most. He did. He made so many big putts from March through August that it seemed like Scheffler was going to make his way into golf tournaments, wow the golf world and get his name in the record books.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_playingthrough For more golf news, follow on Twitter. @jack_milko Too.