Scottie Scheffler he made a habit of winning golf tournaments. It’s also pretty good for making someone’s day.
In a recent episode of GOLF’s Subpar podcast, co-host Colt Knost provided a case in point. Knost was in Dallas recently, mostly for work, but also for fun. That fun included a round with Scheffler at the fabulous Shady Oaks Country Club.
Knost can golf his ball, but not as well as Scheffler, so it was only fitting that the world No. 1 gave his opponent five shots in a friendly match. Their friendly battle went back and forth, and ended in a par when Knost birdied the par-5 18th.
But the most memorable moment of the day came shortly before that closing session.
As his group walked toward the 18th tee, which is located near the far end of the driving range, Scheffler glanced at a group of children working on their games.
“Hey,” he called, smiling, “is that the junior club champion? That’s the junior club champion over there.”
The boy’s eyes widened, as Knost recalled. A smile spread across his face as his friends’ expressions turned to happy disbelief.
Scheffler is not done
“Scottie comes over and gives her a high five and a hug and says, ‘That was awesome,'” Knost said. “‘I was so pumped to hear you won.'”
The young man was now also jaw.
“He made his day, he made his life,” Knost said. “He’ll be at school this week and he’s going to tell everyone, Scottie Scheffler knows I won the junior club championship.”
Co-host Drew Stoltz took the thought a few decades further.
“He’s going to the nursing home when he’s 82 to talk about it,” Stoltz said.
It’s a funny line that gets into something real. Knost has known Scheffler since he was a child himself, so he got an up-close look at a personality most fans only know through social media and TV. This is the essence of Scheffler’s image: gentle but fierce competitor on the course; occasionally sassy with the media; famously uninterested in the usual trappings of celebrity. He doesn’t spend his time cultivating a brand or drawing attention to himself.
There is no person. Only the person, and a nice one at that, interacts with the world in the same way, whether the cameras are rolling or not.
