Freshly crowned PGA champion Scottie Scheffler’s gifts with a golf club in his hands have been apparent since he was a boy, and he is yet to collect his prize from a bet he won more than 20 years ago
Scottie Scheffler has been making people look foolish on the driving range since he was a youngster(Image: Sam Hodde/Getty Images)
Some are just 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 different, and that was certainly the case for newly minted PGA champion Scottie Scheffler, who was just “six or seven years old” when he won a car in a bet.
However, Scheffler is yet to receive the prize he earned as a supremely gifted infant showing off his s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁s at a driving range. Of course, cars and money are not hard to come by for Scheffler, who won his third major championship at Quail Hollow on Sunday but was upstaged by his adorable one-year-old son in the process.
But the tale illustrates just how special the world No. 1 was from the moment he first picked up a golf club. His accuracy in his approach play has become the trademark of his game en route to his 15 PGA Tour wins, and it seems it is a gift that comes naturally to the 28-year-old.
In a 2014 Golf Digest feature that trumpeted the golf prodigy as the “next Jordan Spieth,” an 18-year-old Scheffler first told the story of making a grown man look foolish on the driving range.
“There’s a yellow pole about 100 yards out on the range at Royal Oaks in Dallas,” Scheffler explained. “When I was 6 or 7, this guy said he’d give me five chances to hit the pole. If I did, he’d buy me a car when I was 17. My dad says I hit the pole twice. Still no car.”
Scheffler in action during his PGA Tour debut at the Byron Nelson in 2014(Image: Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
Per Golf Digest, that debt remains unpaid, although it is hard to imagine Scheffler has any interest in collecting it. After all, he earned an estimated $104 million in total earnings in 2024, according to Sportico, and he added a further $3.4 million to his net worth with his Wanamaker Trophy triumph on Sunday.
There is no rest for the wicked, though. Scheffler has made an immediate return to action on Thursday, teeing it up in the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in his native Fort Worth, Texas. And he has no interest in basking in the glory of last week and going through the motions.
“I didn’t just show up here to Fort Worth to just walk around and celebrate last week,” Scheffler said at his pre-tournament press conference. “I’m here for a reason, and that’s not to just play a couple of ceremonious rounds and then ride off in the sunset. I’m here for a reason. That’s to compete.”
He added: “I think any time I can sleep in my own bed and play a golf tournament, it’s a nice thing. It’s nice to be able to be here at home. We always get great support here in the metroplex, and it’s always fun coming back here to play Colonial.
“I love the golf course here. I think it’s a great test. That’s also one of the big reasons I try to come to this event each year. It is just for the golf course. Overall, it’s great to be back in the metroplex. We get great support. So it’s a lot of fun to play in front of a home crowd.”
Scheffler tees off his opening round at 1:45 p.m. ET on Thursday as he chases a third successive win after romping to an eight-shot victory at The CJ Cup Byron Nelson in his final tournament start before the PGA Championship.
