SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — Scottie Scheffler isn’t one to brag. He is very much of the aw, shucks style, chuckling away pressure and, as he said Monday at the Olympics, showing up to each tournament as the same exact person he was before his latest victory.
But at home, it’s starting to get a bit more difficult. The trophy room has been growing.
Scheffler is the front-runner for the PGA Tour Player of the Year award and also the rare, doesn’t-need-to-show-up-until-East-Lake designation. He’s claimed so many FedEx Cup points he could take the first two weeks of the playoffs off and still likely arrive at the Tour Championship in first place. That happens when you win six times in a season. It also demands you get serious about your trophy space.
The winningest room in golf this year is what Scheffler aptly calls his “Golf Room” at his home in Dallas. His clubs are kept in there, old “trinkets” from this golf thing and that golf thing, even a pin-sized piece that Augusta National awards Masters Champions, signifying their membership to the club. He’ll practice in there, too, so Scheffler has had to clear out some stuff this year and, considering all the winning he’s done, also add more shelving for trophies. On Monday, he called that simply, “pretty fun.”
Only problem was he was winning at a rate we haven’t seen since the peak of Tiger Woods. Scheffler once won four times in five starts over the course of seven weeks this March and April. He added another win at the Memorial tournament, and then polished off June with a win at the Travelers Championship.
“We were redoing the room as I was winning a bunch,” he began, “and so we just kind of had to continue to adjust, which was a pretty fun thing to be able to do.”
Yes, we imagine that could be a pretty fun thing to do. The winning and the adjusting. Also a pretty fun flex to make on your general contractor.
Scheffler’s ability to not get caught up in his accomplishments is nearly as impressive as his accomplishments themselves. He seemingly possesses zero scar tissue from close losses. And seems to never ride a wave of overconfidence after a win. There has been a bit of an unbothered nature to his immense success that most golf mortals can’t seem to fathom. But he did have one relatable moment recently.
On Monday at Le Golf National, Scheffler was asked if he ever looks around that golf room of his and pause to enjoy all he’s done. Right now? Not quite. He hopes to do so maybe sometime this fall, during his offseason. But until then, there’s only really been one moment where he’s decided to be a bit of a show-off.
“I think one time this year I took like a trophy, I took my green jacket and the plaid jacket, and I think I held like the Players trophy in one hand, and I had another trophy in the other hand and walked in the living room like, ‘Sup, Mer.’”
What a visual. One that draws to mind the famous images of Tiger Woods posing with all four World Golf Championship trophies at once, since he was the reigning champion in each tournament. Only this would take place from the intimate comforts of Casa de Scheffler.
“At the end of the day, I’m just a golfer and I’m just out here trying to compete,” Scheffler continued, sprinting back into humble mode. “That’s really all there is to it, and sometimes I’m good at it and sometimes I’m bad at it. I’ve talked about it a lot. It doesn’t define me as a person. Doesn’t define my life and I’m just happy to be here.”