Scottie Scheffler believes in divine predestination and is convinced that he was designed to win. “I have been granted the gift of playing golf well and I use it for the glory of God. That’s all,” he assured this Sunday in front of journalists after winning his second Masters of Augusta in three years and confirming himself as the most dominant golfer of the last fifteen years.
Scheffler relies on his faith. He prayed a lot on Sunday morning. He prayed that his neck pains would not get worse and he prayed for peace. His wife, Meredith, who experienced his victory from their home in Dallas, savoring the last days of pregnancy before childbirth, also dedicated several prayers to him.
The two feel that no matter what happens in the tournaments they have already won. “My identity is going to be the same whether I win or lose a tournament. It doesn’t change who I am. It’s a very special feeling to know that it doesn’t matter if I achieve victory or not. My friends told me in the morning, before going to the field that my victory was assured on the cross. This gave me a lot of calm,” he assures.
The idea of predestination helps him to live what surrounds him with more tranquility. He understands that everything is written and if it has to happen, it will happen. “I believe that today’s plans were already drawn many years ago and I could not do anything to spoil them.”
Scottie is very religious, but at the same time he is an insatiable competitor. “I don’t think it’s bad. I love to win and I hate to lose. I really hate playing over par. When I’m leading on a Sunday, I really want to win. I feel that’s how I was designed. I’ve been like this since I was little. It’s always been a part of me and I don’t think it’s going to disappear soon,” he explains.
He would like to enjoy the victories a bit more, but he doesn’t understand it that way. “Professional golf is deeply unsatisfactory. Right now I’m not thinking about the victory or the Green Jacket, but about going home. Maybe when I get there I try to understand what happened, absorb it better, but in the end on Thursday I’ll be teeing off again with the intention of winning a tournament. That’s the human heart, you always want more and I think you have to fight against that and focus more on the good things.” (He plays the RBC Heritage).
He is aware that his life is going to change with the birth of his first child, but he is not worried. He has no problem relegating golf in his scale of priorities, without that meaning that he is not going to want to keep winning. “I will go home and enjoy this victory. I will enjoy after the birth of my first child. My priorities will change very soon. My son or daughter will now be the main priority, along with my wife, so golf will probably be fourth on the list. In any case, I still love to compete and I don’t plan to lose focus in this sense in the short term.”
As for the last round of the Masters, Scheffler assures that he never saw the tournament won. The key was to keep pushing and making birdies. “On this course if you play very aggressive or very defensive, you pay for it. You have to hit the shots that you have to hit at each moment. That’s what I tried and luckily it worked out well for me. I didn’t start playing well, we got the wind wrong several times, but Tedd (Scott, his caddie) did an exceptional job keeping me where I had to be.”
In his opinion, the most important shot of the day was the putt on hole 8. “That gave me a great boost to attack later on 9, 10, 13… I didn’t stop attacking and hitting the shots that were needed at each moment. I’m grateful because it worked out well,” he points out.
Similarly, he had words of thanks for his two main coaches, Randy Smith, who watches his swing, and Phil Kenyon, who takes care of his putter. “I thank both of them because it was not an easy situation. I’ve been working with Randy for 20 years and after East Lake we sat down and I told him that we had to look for something with the putt. He agreed and thought it was very good that we got in touch with Phil. I have to thank him because he put aside his ego, and that’s not easy. Similarly, I have to thank Kenyon because he also puts aside his ego and only thinks about what’s best for the player. I’m lucky to be with both of them,” he concludes.
