No waste was had in Scottie Scheffler’s press conference ahead of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the tournament where the World Number One returns to competition after the domestic accident he suffered, which caused him to miss the Sentry and the American Express. Among other things, the Texan has explained better how the accident happened, that deep cut on his hand. He has also revealed what he spent a good part of his forced free time on, and the reflection on it is most interesting.
The unfortunate kitchen accident. “We were making some ravioli, but from scratch, meaning you have to make the dough, roll it out, and cut it. But we were in a rental house and didn’t have the right tools, so we used a wine glass we found to cut the dough… I had my hand on top and it broke. The stem broke and cut my hand. It’s on the top part of the palm, below the middle finger. It’s one of those situations where immediately after you get angry with yourself: God, this is so stupid. But when you’re doing it, you don’t think about it. You can’t live constantly in a bubble, you have to live your life and accidents happen. There in the house, I had a friend who is a surgeon, and he stopped the bleeding. It wasn’t so terrible, but I couldn’t move my hand much, and if I did, it hurt quite a bit, so I knew something was up. Anyway, we were planning to leave the next day. I got a guy who helped me with my thumb about 10 years ago, a hand specialist who works with my friend who is a hip surgeon. He helped facilitate what I needed to do. Actually, he was out of town, so he recommended another doctor to do the surgery. And he did a great job, I was able to heal quite quickly.”
What he spent a good part of his forced free time on. “I’ve gone back to watch some tournaments I played last year. The PGA Tour gives us access to a way to watch our rounds very quickly. I wasn’t necessarily watching the tournament finals. I was more watching the tournament development, thinking about what I was feeling at that moment and how my brain was functioning. I was reviewing those things because my memory isn’t really good. It was really about reviewing how I managed to stay patient, how I managed not to force things at certain stretches and wait for the tournament to come to me… The examples of THE PLAYERS and the Travelers are good. They are two tournaments where on Saturday I was almost out, but in both, I finished with birdies that day, waiting for my opportunity, maintaining patience. Also, I usually review the tournaments on television because it gives you very good angles of your swing where you can see different things.”
On Rory’s words, who praised how incredible it is that Scheffler makes so few mistakes and signs so many rounds without bogeys. “Having superior ball control has allowed me not to make so many mistakes… But I actually did make many mistakes, although it’s more about controlling where you miss.”
Regarding Justin Thomas’s request to players to be more accessible in television production and interact more with fans. “The main reason I’ve always liked watching sports is for the pure competition. I think what’s interesting about sports is when there are great players competing. People follow Tiger because he’s a great player. His golf clubs always spoke for him. He didn’t go out to do anything else or try to put on a show. He went out to compete and play golf. Sometimes it was electrifying because he went crazy when things were going well, but he was also very, very good at going crazy and then returning to a different mental state. I try not to reject many media requests. I come and give a press conference every week I play and rarely reject an interview after playing a round. I try to be attentive and honest when I respond, although there are aspects of my life that I like to keep private. I’ve never strived to be a performer. I’ve always liked playing golf, and that’s what I want, to come and compete. If people want to watch and enjoy, then come and have fun, but I’m not going to try to put on a show or do something very crazy to try to get more people to watch me. Justin (Thomas) mentioned some positive points about being more open to doing more things, that’s fine, but in the end, I think what people like is the competition.”
