Scottie Scheffler’s neck, relatable Rory McIlroy | Rogers Report

Hello friends, and welcome to today’s Rogers Report, where I’m coming to you live from the Jacksonville International Airport after a very fun few days at TPC Sawgrass for the Players Championship. Before we get into it, I want to give this place a proper shout out for being lightyears ahead of every other airport I’ve ever been to.

That’s right, folks. They’ve got a golf simulator in Terminal A! What a fun way to pass the time while waiting for your flight. Dads everywhere are going to make their family get to the airport even earlier than they already do in hopes of getting a full round in before boarding. Suddenly, delays don’t seem so horrible after all.

Relatable Rory

I’m feeling a lot like Rory McIlroy today, but definitely not because of my golf. We have absolutely nothing in common when it comes to swinging a club. However, when it comes to knowing about professional athletes who aren’t golfers, we might be a little similar. McIlroy couldn’t quite place another professional athlete when asked in a presser on Thursday.

As someone who knows a lot about professional golfers and very little about other athletes, I can relate to this feeling all too well. The darting eyeballs and effort at not looking lost is a feeling I am quite familiar with. I usually just nod in agreement and pretend to know who my pals are talking about when they’re tossing out random athletes’ names, kind of like McIlroy did above. He’s lucky that the reporter specifically said “NFL” here. I often have to rely on context clues, such as a passing mention of the Heisman Trophy or spring training to figure out what sport the person being discussed belongs to.

Being from Northern Ireland, McIlroy definitely has an excuse for not knowing every American athlete. I, on the other hand, do not.

Scottie’s neck

You know who I absolutely can’t relate to today? Scottie Scheffler, who is heading into the weekend at the Players at eight-under par despite dealing with a sore neck. When it comes to grit and doing anything while (even mildly) under the weather, I simply don’t have the “it” factor. Jordan’s Flu game, Tiger winning at Torrey on a broken leg, and Scottie teeing it up with a stiff neck — all somewhat foreign concepts to me. I can appreciate it all, of course. I just can’t relate. I once pretended to have a fever to get out of a middle school cross country race. I think it took more effort to convince my parents that I was under the weather than it would have to run the 5K.

Back to Scottie. He had to take a few breathers to get his neck worked on during his round on Friday. And because he’s now feeling okay, I’m declaring it safe to meme about, which the good folks on Twitter immediately did.

We’ve seen NBA players falling into the courtside seats during games, but seeing a player (the World No. 1, no less) take a seat in a foldable chair in the middle of competition is something you really won’t see any other sport. There’s always something funny going on at PGA Tour events.

Scheffler kinda looks like a bored dad at a Little League game in these photos, which inspired me to place him elsewhere.

Scheffler chilling out on the subway, in class, at the mall or in church — all somehow look more normal than what we saw on Friday at TPC Sawgrass.

You know you’ve got some good content on your hands when the Twitter account “Art But Make It Sports” chimes in. I always feel a weird sense of pride for our sport when a golf image makes it on his account, which it did today.

So good. The guy who runs this account simply never misses.

Claire Rogers

Golf.com Editor

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