O’Connell similarly is fresh off a tournament, albeit one with lower stakes. He competed July 10-12 at the American Century Championship at Edgewood Tahoe Resort, as did recently retired Adam Thielen, who also played in the 3M Pro-Am.
A golf gallery — especially one before 7 a.m. — doesn’t create quite the same atmosphere as a U.S. Bank Stadium crowd on a Vikings game day … but O’Connell still garnered cheers from fans and stopped to snap a few photos.
Sheffler is an avid NFL fan but roots for the Cowboys — “We won’t hold it against him,” O’Connell quipped — but noted during the post-round press conference, “I wasn’t going to just start hammering him with questions about football.”
“He’s about to start the season, so he’s going to be thinking about football for quite some period of time,” Sheffler said. “We did a little bit [of football chat]. He seemed like a really nice guy. You can see why he’s such a good choice. He seems very smart. I got to ask him a few questions, and he told me some stuff. It was definitely very fun for me to be able to spend some time with him.
“Like I said, I love the NFL and am fascinated by what they’re able to do,” he continued. “Especially the head coach. I think in football, it’s easily the most important position on the team. I mean, he’s gotta handle a lot of different personalities and the Xs and Os. He was definitely a very impressive guy to be able to talk to and spend some time with.”
The sentiments were certainly mutual.
“What an unbelievable event,” O’Connell told Vikings.com. “It’s an unbelievable experience to get to watch the best in the world do what they do at such a high level. The best part was just walking the fairways, learning about him, his family, and getting to bring my son Kaden out, as well.”