ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES – Masters champion Scottie Scheffler said on Tuesday that a key reason behind the remarkable success he has enjoyed over the last 13 months on the PGA Tour is a support team that helps him shut out the background noise and focus on golf.
The 26-year-old American transformed into a bona fide PGA Tour star from a player on the rise while winning four times in 2022, and he has already triumphed twice in 2023, including in his most recent start at The Players Championship.
Speaking ahead of this week’s title defence at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Matchplay event in Austin, Texas, the world No. 1 was asked if there was a secret to his success.
“If there was a secret, you would have seen a lot more guys do it than just Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus,” he said at Austin Country Club.
“It’s a tough question. It’s different for everybody. I think I’ve developed a good recipe for good golf out here and that will be something that I’m going to try to not change in the future.”
Scheffler has so far managed to remain unaffected by the greater expectations that come with the territory of being a Major champion and already has six top-10 finishes in nine events this season.
Although he feels that there is no secret to winning, consistency has been a major factor in his game.
He has had the same coach since he was around seven, the same trainer from his high school days and has known his manager “my whole life”.
“I have a great team of people around me that help keep me grounded and help me be able to go out here and do my best and not think about all the other stuff. I can go out here and focus on golf and just go out and play,” said Scheffler.
“And so I have a great team around me that’s helping me do that and just going to kind of stick to the programme that we’ve been doing for years and go from there.”
The reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year is the top seed at this week’s matchplay event and is in a group with Tom Kim, Alex Noren and Davis Riley. The 16 group winners enter the knockout stages.
The total tournament purse is USD20 million, with USD3.5 million going to the winner.
