When Scottie Scheffler held off Nick Taylor on Sunday to win the WM Phoenix Open and reclaim the No. 1 ranking, it marked the fifth PGA Tour victory of his career. His most recent win before Phoenix was the Masters last April, and he’ll embark on his title defense at Augusta in less than two months.
But before he hits any shots in pursuit of his second green jacket, he has one big function to attend to: the Masters Champions Dinner, where he’ll be the honored guest.
But on Tuesday at the Genesis Invitational, Scheffler revealed that while his game has never looked better, he’s “kind of clueless” when it comes to what he’s expected to do at the Champions Dinner.
“I don’t know exactly what you’re supposed to say that night. I haven’t really gotten too much info,” Scheffler admitted to reporters on Tuesday. “I’ve got to talk to a few of the guys and figure out what actually goes on that night because I’m still kind of clueless. I’m hoping that it will be a fun night.”
Traditionally at the Masters Champions Dinner, which occurs Tuesday of Masters week and features a guest list restricted to past Masters winners and Augusta Chairman Fred Ridley, the reigning champion delivers a speech to kick off the evening. Hideki Matsuyama received rave reviews for his speech at last year’s dinner, which he delivered in English to the attendees’ delight.
In addition to the speech, the reigning champ also must select the meal that will be served (Matsuyama’s choice of assorted sushi, sashimi and nigiri, yakitori chicken skewers, miso glazed black cod and wagyu beef ribeye earned high marks). Scheffler appears to be behind on that duty as well, but he’s enlisted the help of his wife, Meredith, to help accomplish the important task.
“I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do, but it will be fun. It’s fun kind of planning it out. My wife, Meredith, she’s very creative,” Scheffler said. “She’s been helping me kind of think my way through it because I’m not really good at that, so she’s been helping me out.”
One extra Champions Dinner wrinkle that Scheffler will have to navigate this year is the presence of LIV pros for the first time since they left the PGA Tour. Tensions are sure to be high, as Tiger Woods acknowledged in his own press conference on Tuesday, but Scheffler is hoping everyone can forget about the drama temporarily and enjoy themselves.
“Gathering all those guys together in a room, I mean, it should be a lot of fun. It’s an historic group of people, Masters champions, and I’m sure that we’ll all put our personal opinions aside and just have a good night and just kind of enjoy what the night really is.”
