With a classy performance in Paris, Scottie Scheffler can add a gold medal to his increasingly crowded home trophy room. Or, as the World No. 1 called it at his pre-Olympics press conference, “the golf room where I just keep all my crap”.
Scheffler has won a staggering six times on the PGA Tour in 2024 — the first player to accomplish the feat before July since Tiger Woods. Scheffler won four (of the eight) Signature Events, his second Masters, and the Players Championship — the biggest money prize on the PGA Tour.
Ahead of his Olympics debut, the decorated 27-year-old cited two keys to his historic season, which also includes two runner-ups, a T8 at the PGA Championship, and a T7 at the Open Championship. Scheffler said he's prioritized reframing the negativity while keeping an even keel as the expectations have risen.
“I think mostly I'm proud of how I've been mentally,” he told the media on Monday in Paris, where he enjoyed checking out table tennis and the Louvre. “I think being in the spotlight can be challenging at times. I felt like last year was fairly challenging in a sense of the questions I was receiving in areas like this, seemed to have more of a negative connotation and this year they seemed to have a much more positive connotation.”
Running parallel to Scheffler's unmatched success on the golf course has been unique off-course circumstances. He was arrested during the PGA Championship. He welcomed his first child weeks shortly after.
“I'm not trying to be any different,” he said about his eventful 2024. “I don't show up acting like the No. 1 player in the world, and I don't show up as anybody other than myself, and I just try to do my best to compete.
“I would say I'm the most proud of myself in the last couple years not being overly emotional with how my golf has been, whether it be too negative or too positive. If it was too negative, I would be probably a pretty miserable person to be around and if was too positive; if I loved myself too much, I would probably be a pretty tough person to be around as well.”
When it comes to the actual golf, the best ball-striker in the world cited his work on the greens (thanks, Rory McIlroy!) as his most notable area of improvement. Scheffler has gained 0.4 strokes on the field putting in 2024; still just 90th on the PGA Tour, but much better than 2023, when he lost -0.3 strokes on average.
“I think if you took a look at my statistics, statistically I think my putting has gotten better than last year and I think I still have a lot of room to improve,” he said Monday. “Based on pure statistics, I went from losing shots on the green to I think I'm positive now. Seeing those little results like that can be really great for your covered knowing you're working on the right things and working in the right direction.”
Scheffler ranks first in strokes gained: total, first in approach, fourth in driving, and first in greens in regulation this season. When he makes his putts, he wins tournaments. When he struggles on the greens — as he did at Royal Troon — he merely hangs around the top 10.
“Sometimes the game is really just as simple as that, holing a couple more putts,” he said. “Definitely this year I've holed some putts in key moments. I've looked back at rounds like I had at the Players, holing key putts; like the Masters; making the putt to win at the Memorial. The margins out here are so small that sometimes you're a good break away from winning a tournament and a bad break away from losing one.”
The Olympics men's golf competition (a standard 72-hole, lowest-score event) will take place from Aug. 1-3 at Le Golf National, near Versailles. Scheffler is one of four Team USA representatives in the 60-person field, along with Collin Morikawa, Wyndham Clark, and his competition for PGA Tour Player of the Year race, Xander Schauffele.
“I try not to think about it,” Scheffler said about the end of year award. “I've had a pretty good year and Xander has had a pretty about year as well. It's for people to vote on. I'm proud of the year that I've had and the consistent results.”
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