SOUTHPORT, England \u2014 There\u2019s a funny contrast between the image of Scottie Scheffler\u2014an image that is largely true, I think\u2014of an athlete uniquely focused on the present, totally undistracted by the baubles of fame, and obsessively competitive in a way that seems to be motivated by the joys of competition rather than its rewards, and the reality of the man who finds his way into deep and often fatalistic conversations at press conferences, especially at the Open Championship.<\/p>\n
MORE: Your vibes-only guide to the Open Championship <\/p>\n
You\u2019ll remember last year, when he spoke about the fleeting nature of victory and all its joy, making the point that you better not be gearing your life around that temporary satisfaction, or you\u2019ll be disappointed. It was all tremendous, even if the odd moron tried to reframe it as \u201cScottie doesn\u2019t like golf! Boo hoo, multimillionaire!\u201d It didn\u2019t mean he\u2019d lost the love for the game, or the desire to win, just that at age 29, he already had an incredibly healthy sense of where long-lasting satisfaction can be found, and where it cannot. None of this immunized him from emotional reactions on the course, as we\u2019ve seen in the past year; it\u2019s just that he gets the big picture.<\/p>\n
I actually thought the conversation that came out of his quotes was mostly productive, but I also thought he would avoid anything similar this year. Boy was I wrong!<\/p>\n
On Tuesday at Royal Birkdale, the reigning Open champion from Portrush last year took his place on the podium before a crowded room of reporters, he lulled us into a sense of normalcy for a few minutes, speaking about the novelty of missing a cut for the first time in four years, course conditions at Birkdale, and the difficulty of the par 3s. Even after someone directly brought up his remarks from a year ago at Portrush, he just joked about it, saying it should be taken in context of the entire quote, but that, \u201cI don\u2019t even feel like I recommend anyone doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He did give a small hint of what was to come, though, with a quick thought on his sense of purpose, and how it isn\u2019t always clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy do I choose to play this sport for a living?\u201d he asked rhetorically. \u201cLike, always figuring out your why. I think when I have a really good understanding of what my why is when I\u2019m playing, I think that\u2019s when I\u2019m always at peace the most.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few more questions passed, and then a reporter asked him how much certain stats matter to him\u2014the kind of stats that say, \u201cyou\u2019re the first person to do this, or the seventh person to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
And philosophical Scottie made his first true entrance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really play for a place in history,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not playing for anything like that because\u2014this is going to sound a little morbid\u2014at the end of the day, I\u2019m going to live my life, and it\u2019s going to end. When it ends, I\u2019m going somewhere else, and I\u2019m not going to be here anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
In some ways, this is a pretty ordinary and reasonable thought\u2014some people care about how history will view them after they\u2019re gone, and some people take the position that it doesn\u2019t matter, because you\u2019ll no longer be there to care.<\/p>\n
But as Scottie well knew, he\u2019d just written a dozen or more headlines for the writers in the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs that going to be a quote after last year\u2019s \u201cwhat\u2019s the point\u201d?\u201d he joked. \u201cThis year, we\u2019re all going to die.\u201d<\/p>\n
That got the requisite laughs, but in fact, once again, the stuff he was saying went beyond what 99 percnt of athletes ever deliver, and we\u2019ve now had it two years in a row.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think sometimes I get really soaked into the competition,\u201d he said, on the concept of his \u201cwhy,\u201d his reason for playing. \u201cI get really into like the heat of the moment, and I think that\u2019s sometimes why you\u2019ll see me get frustrated. That\u2019s why I kind of posed the question, \u2018why do I want to win this tournament so badly?\u2019 \u2026 it would almost be easier if I didn\u2019t want to win this badly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf losing didn\u2019t hurt so much,\u201d he continued, \u201cit might be easier to come out and play. But then again, when I retire and I sit back, I\u2019m going to miss the feeling of waking up in the morning and not being able to eat breakfast because your stomach hurts because you\u2019re anticipating the day. Those feelings are hard to replicate, and it\u2019s a hard thing to describe until you\u2019re in the moment, but when you\u2019re able to succeed and have some success in the game, those are very great gifts that I\u2019m extremely thankful for.\u201d<\/p>\n
For someone who spares very little thought for questions about his previous shortcomings, or about what he might accomplish in a period of years\u2014in other words, about his past and future\u2014he was surprisingly thoughtful about his 2026 so far, which contains far fewer wins (one, at the season-opening American Express) and more second places (four) than we\u2019ve come to expect. He made the analogy to an NFL team, and how it\u2019s very rare for a team that wins the Super Bowl to sustain that high level the next year. In golf, the mechanisms are slightly different, but the results are not.<\/p>\n
\u201cMentally, especially in this day and age, there\u2019s just a lot of noise all the time at golf tournaments,\u201d he said. \u201cI think golf is unique in a sense, too, with the mental grind the sport entails. There\u2019s just a lot more stuff that\u2019s going on at tournaments. For instance, this week, I show up on Sunday thinking there\u2019s not going to be any fans out there. We get out there on the first hole, and there\u2019s fans out there. I love being able to play in front of fans; that\u2019s a tremendous amount of fun. But I get to the bunker on the first hole, and I turn around, and within six feet of me there\u2019s literally two cameras right in my face. I kind of turn around and look at the guys, like \u2018Hey, y\u2019all, are you going to be this close all day, or could we get a little bit of room?’\u201d<\/p>\n
The spotlight, he said, comes with a burden, and being constantly recorded can make it feel like \u201cwalking on eggshells.\u201d And thus a player can become enervated, and psychologically depleted, even as his game seems to remain in solid form.<\/p>\n
He is keenly aware of his need for a reset, not just now but in general. What he\u2019s not keenly aware of, though, is history, and he made that clear in no uncertain terms.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, I have never once thought about how I\u2019m going to be remembered,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d much rather be remembered for doing things the right way than the guy that won all the tournaments.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTHPORT, England \u2014 There\u2019s a funny contrast between the image of Scottie Scheffler\u2014an image that is largely true,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,755,138747,85],"class_list":["post-800692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}