Whistling Straits’ first tee for the 2021 singles match between Scheffler and then World No 1 Jon Rahm “was like being inside a jet engine,” Smith says. “I’ve never seen or heard anything like it in my life.” Neither had Scheffler. A year removed from being named PGA Tour Rookie of the Year but still winless at the top level, the moment could have been paralysing for Scheffler this early in his professional career. “I didn’t have anything to compare it to,” Scheffler says. “You hear players say winning a match at the Ryder Cup is like winning a major. There’s so much more weight because you’re also playing for the other 11 guys, captains and vice captains and the thousands of people out there. At the Masters, it’s just me, my caddie and a small team. If I fail, they still love me. If you fail at the Ryder Cup, you’re letting down the whole country.” Once Scheffler’s tee went into the ground that day, the stress and anxiety from the run-up to the match receded. He went through his usual routines and mannerisms, down to his familiar shirt shoulder tug and thousand-yard stare. It was as if he was playing a random off-week match against his buddies. “It doesn’t matter where I’m playing, I’m just an amped-up person, excited to compete. The buildup can be a challenge, but when you get out there, all of that melts away. Then it’s just, I know what I’m doing. I can play this game.” In that Ryder Cup match, Scheffler birdied the first four holes and never let the previously undefeated Rahm rally. He put the first singles point on the board for the victorious American team. That performance set the table for an incredible stretch in early 2022 when he won four tournaments in eight weeks, following up Phoenix with wins at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, WGC Match Play and the Masters. Your first lesson, Scheffler says, is to stick with your habits, your mannerisms, your style of play – no matter what you’re up against. The atmosphere might feel different, but you’re not.
DRIVER: STRETCH ➻ YOUR CHEST Transitioning too fast is a big reason you don’t hit it as far – or as straight – as you can, says Scheffler’s coach, Randy Smith, one of Golf Digest’s 50 Best Teach- ers in America. “If you don’t get a full stretch in your chest on the backswing, the downswing happens too fast relative to your body’s timing, the club gets to the ball too early, and a slice or pull is the likely re- sult.” Instead, keep stretch- ing as you swing back. Don’t stop until you feel the weight of the clubhead ‘tip over’ at the top.”
It took Scottie Scheffler all of 92 professional starts to get to World No 1. Tiger Woods (21 starts) and Jordan Spieth (77) are the only two to do it faster, and neither of those guys spent a year in the so-called minor leagues like Scheffler did. His meteoric rise in the past three years – 13 victories on the PGA Tour since his first win at Phoenix in February 2022 – wasn’t the result of a breakthrough swing tip or new exercise routine. He has been the same person he has always been – consistent and relentless. Scheffler’s primary skill – aside from virtuoso hand-eye coordination and ultra-alpha competitiveness – is the ability to deal with only what’s in front of him. Many players get triggered by the past or the future – not Scottie. You might think that type of focus, to stay fully present at all times, is reserved for the game’s elite, but Scheffler and his longtime coach, Randy Smith, say it’s a skill you can learn and use, too. It doesn’t mean turning into an emotionless robot on the course or training yourself to somehow go blank when the pressure turns up. In fact, it means letting yourself be more human and more reactive, but with a process on how to handle it – and how to embrace the challenge as more fun. Read on if you’re ready to play more “in the now.”
YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE PERFECT – NOT EVEN CLOSE
Watching golf on television can give the impression that the best players in the world are flushing almost every shot. It’s true that a lot of things have to go right to win a tournament at any level, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessary to stay mistake free to play really well. “In Phoenix (in 2022), I learned it doesn’t take perfect golf to win,” says Scheffler, who picked up his first tour victory after a three-hole playoff against Patrick Cantlay. “I came from behind there, and I made three or four bogeys in the first 12 holes on a course where you have to go out and make a bunch of birdies. When I got to Bay Hill, I
YOU DO YOU
With all due respect to the Phoenix Open’s 16th- hole stadium hysteria, the beer-fuelled rowdiness in the Arizona desert has nothing on the focused, patriotic intensity of a Ryder Cup crowd. The sound coming from the thousands surrounding
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2025
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