The unusual golf substitute playing in Scottie Scheffler’s injury recovery

It’s been an unusual golf season for Scottie Scheffler.

Fresh off the best golf season in 25 years, Scheffler has enjoyed an extended winter break. A unplanned winter holidays. And one of the longest periods of his life without golf.

Broken glass is to blame for Scheffler’s absence. Specifically, broken glass WITHIN Scheffler’s right hand, which eventually required removal of the operation. Scottie says he suffered the injury while making Ravioli with his family at Christmas. It’s now January 20th and he hasn’t played golf since, which has led to some… unusual sharp attitude forms.

At a media availability as the defending Arnold Palmer Invitational champion on Monday, Scheffler detailed his recovery from surgery, including the mental training he underwent to maintain his game ready for the tournament while his clubs have remained in the safety of the garage.

“I’ve never been big on reflection and things like that,” Scheffler said. “But since I’ve been sitting down since the surgery, I’ve taken some time to go back and look at a few things from last year, mostly just to help jog my memory.”

Scheffler’s injury raises a number of strange questions for the two-time Masters champion. Typically, the offseason is the time for pros to work improvement for the following year. Before the injury, Scheffler appeared to be on the verge of another major improvement, debuting with the claws in a 2024 final victory at World Challenge of Heroes. But with his injury preventing him from doing much practice in ’25, Scheffler seems to be in the opposite camp – trying his best to guard form that gave him the winningest individual season in PGA Tour history in 2024.

“I usually have a pretty short memory for things,” Scheffler said. “So I came back as I was sitting raising my hand after surgery, I was just sitting there. I watched some old footage, watched some old tournaments and reflected a little bit, not a lot.”

“I just wanted to jog my memory,” he said. “And since I wasn’t able to play golf, I tried to practice a little bit at home, where I was reminding my brain what I felt during certain shots and how my hands felt on the club and things like that. So, you know, I wasn’t completely checking out of golf, if that makes sense.”

Fortunately, Scheffler was not reduced to potato status for long. The doctors gave him a 3-4 week recovery from surgery around Christmas and the calendar is fast moving towards February. Over the weekend, a video emerged on social media showing the world No.1 in the gym with his trainer and wearing a protective brace over his injured right hand.

Scheffler says he hopes to return to competitive golf at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at the end of the month. But he admits that he has not yet made a final decision.

“I’m definitely anxious to get back, excited to get back,” Scheffler said. “But I’m also not going to rush back just to rush back.”

Scheffler is trying to start a difficult needle. The competitor in him is dying to play, but his instinct for self-preservation is screaming to make sure he’s healthy before returning to a full-time playing schedule. No amount of film study will account for a swing that is fair LESS out of sync, especially given the standard of play he has displayed over the last 18 months.

The blessing of having played at Scottie Scheffler’s level of play in recent years is that holding his level of play should be enough to keep him firmly in contention most weeks. The curse is that holding that standard of play is tough, especially when you’ve been out for the better part of the last two months.

The good news is that Scheffler is uniquely equipped to know if he’s reaching that standard of play. He’s been watching it closely for the past month.