Scottie Scheffler is talking about results.
This is it The PGA Championship week, after all, but this story is about a youth event he played in when he was 12. It was a qualifying event, he explained, and you could either take your score and enter that week’s main event, or use it in the future. But Scheffler’s father, Scott, didn’t make it an either/or proposition. His son could only play in the qualifiers. No tournament that week. The family had to be somewhere.
Agreement. Scott walked away from Scottie. Scottie played. Scottie called him when he was done.
“He says, ‘I don’t like that. That’s not something I want to hear,'” the younger Scheffler said on Tuesday at Aronimink Golf Clubhost of the PGA. “I said, ‘Well, Dad, I qualified.’ So if I win the qualification, I get into the tournament and can save the ban. So I want to play in the tournament.
“He says, ‘Scottie, I told you, you can’t play in the tournament. I say, ‘But Dad, I won.'”
Of course, he would remember that story.
He was just listening to his mother.
Scheffler was asked at his pre-PGA press conference for advice for young players and their parents, and he said his parents never pushed him. They would leave him with a coach Randy Smithand he was out.
“I think there were more important things to them than my golf game,” Scheffler said. “I think growing up, especially when you look at youth sports today, I think you see a lot of parents who are very diligent. It’s not from a place where they don’t care. I think they want their kids to succeed. I think they want them to do well. I think sometimes pushing them towards something is the best way to do it.
“Maybe not in some cases, but I think I did the best when my parents left me on the golf course and let me do my own thing. One of the first things Randy taught my dad is when Scottie goes to the golf course, he takes his bag off the golf cart, he sets up his zone. He doesn’t need your help. when I need help, but not pushing me to be anything but a good student and a good person.
And his mother, Diane, made one that was “interesting,” he said. She had a rule.
“She never asked me what I shot,” Scheffler said. “She said, ‘If you want me to know what you shot, you’ll tell me.
“‘I don’t have to ask you what you shot’.”
;)
Kevin Cunningham
Good advice, and the benefits are clear. Later in the press conference, Scheffler talked about how he’s internally focused and how he enjoys getting better, and you can see where that took root. However, you are curious.
Did Scheffler play in that junior tournament?
And how did he do?
He remembered that too.
“So he ends up letting me play on tour,” Scheffler said, “and I remember calling him when the tour was over because the tour was hours away and he had to leave me there for a period of time. I was like 12 years old. He’s probably not going to be happy about me telling this story.
“I called him after the tournament, because the tournament’s over, everything’s cleaned up, and he’s not coming back for another hour or two. So I’m training after the tournament. I called him, ‘Well, Dad’ — I told him what I shot, I finished fifth. Now I’m completely out. We don’t have to worry about quality anymore. A few hours.”
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