Scott Alexander Scheffler (born June 21, 1996) is an American
professional golfer
A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...
who plays on the
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...
. From March to October 2022, he was World Number 1 in the
Official World Golf Ranking
The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986.
The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolli ...
. He won the
2022 Masters Tournament
The 2022 Masters Tournament was the 86th edition of the Masters Tournament, the first of the four major golf championships of 2022, held April 7–10 at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.
For the first time since the 2019 tou ...
.
Early life
Scheffler was born to Diane and Scott Scheffler in
Ridgewood, New Jersey
Ridgewood is a village in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 24,958,Montvale, New Jersey
Montvale is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 7,844,Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
, Texas, in the wake of the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...
. Scheffler's father Scott was a
stay-at-home dad
A stay-at-home dad (alternatively, full-time father, stay-at-home father, house dad, househusband, or house-spouse) is a father who is the main caregiver of the children and is generally the homemaker of the household. The female equivalent is ...
, while his mother Diane worked as a
chief operating officer
A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...
at the law firm Thompson & Knight.
His interest in golf began at age 3, when his parents gave him a set of plastic clubs and ball. After the move to Dallas, Scheffler received tutelage at the Royal Oaks Golf Club under instructor Randy Smith, who coached
Justin Leonard
Justin Charles Garrett Leonard (born June 15, 1972) is an American professional golfer. He has twelve career wins on the PGA Tour, including one major, the 1997 Open Championship.
Early years
Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Leonard graduated f ...
to a victory at
The Open Championship
The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later t ...
in 1997. Scheffler had prolific success at the youth level, and won 75 times on the PGA junior circuit, competing against the likes of fellow Dallas-area native Will Zalatoris.
Entering high school, Scheffler had a diminutive frame at barely in height, but experienced a large growth spurt and soon measured over tall. The rapid growth caused back injuries for Scheffler, particularly during his sophomore year. He played golf and basketball at Highland Park High School in the Dallas suburb of University Park. At Highland Park, Scheffler won individual state titles three years in a row (2012 to 2014), matching a record set by fellow Texan
Jordan Spieth
Jordan Alexander Spieth (born July 27, 1993) is an American professional golfer on the PGA Tour and former world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking. He is a three-time major winner and the 2015 FedEx Cup champion.
Spieth's first maj ...
. He also had success in AJGA events, won the 2013
U.S. Junior Amateur The United States Junior Amateur Championship is one of the fourteen U.S. national golf championships organized by the United States Golf Association. It is open to amateur boys who are under 19 on the last day of the competition and have a USGA Ha ...
, and was the top-ranked junior golfer in the country in 2014.
Scheffler was then recruited to play collegiate golf at the
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
from 2014 to 2018, where he helped the team win three
Big 12
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its f ...
championships and was named "
Phil Mickelson
Philip Alfred Mickelson (born June 16, 1970), nicknamed Lefty, is an American professional golfer who plays for LIV Golf. He has won 45 events on the PGA Tour, including six major championships: three Masters titles (2004, 2006, 2010), two P ...
Freshman of the Year" in 2015. He graduated in 2018 with a bachelor's degree in finance. He was also part of the U.S. team that won the 2017 Walker Cup.
In 2016, Scheffler qualified for his first U.S. Open. He opened with a first-round 69, but would shoot a second-round 78 to miss the cut by one stroke. Again in 2017, Scheffler qualified for the U.S. Open after surviving a 4-for-3 playoff to earn a spot in the field. He and Cameron Champ were the only two amateurs to make the cut at the 2017 U.S. Open. Scheffler finished as low amateur at 1-under-par, one stroke ahead of Champ.
Professional career
Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year
Scheffler earned his 2019 Web.com Tour card through qualifying school.
On May 26, 2019, Scheffler fired a bogey-free, 9-under 63 — playing the back nine in 30 — to force a playoff with 54-hole leader
Marcelo Rozo
Marcelo Rozo (born 6 September 1989) is a Colombian professional golfer who plays on Korn Ferry Tour.
Professional career
Rozo turned professional in 2012. He became a full-time member of PGA Tour Latinoamérica in 2013 and won his first title ...
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, an ...
. Scheffler shot 4-under 67 in the final round at
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pu ...
's Scarlet Course for a two-shot victory. He totaled a 12-under 272 for the week and finished two shots ahead of
Brendon Todd
Brendon Todd (born July 22, 1985) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and the Web.com Tour.
Early career
Todd played his junior golf at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary, North Carolina and Green Hope High School. He won ...
Korn Ferry Tour Finals
The Korn Ferry Tour Finals is a series of three golf tournaments that serve as a means of earning PGA Tour membership for the following season ("Tour cards"). The series, which until 2019 consisted of four tournaments, replaced the PGA Tour Qualif ...
(the Web.com Tour was renamed the Korn Ferry Tour in mid-season). Scheffler led both the Finals points list and the overall points list to earn a fully exempt PGA Tour card for the 2020 season. He was later named
Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year
The Korn Ferry Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either not yet reached the PGA Tour, or who have done so but then failed to win enough FedEx Cup points to stay at that level. ...
.
PGA Tour Rookie of the Year
In August 2020, Scheffler finished tied for fourth at the 2020 PGA Championship. He won $528,000 in prize money in the tournament.
On August 21, 2020, Scheffler shot a 12-under 59 at The Northern Trust. His round was the joint second-lowest in PGA Tour history and just the 12th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history.
He was named the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year for the 2019-20 season.
In September 2021, Scheffler played on the U.S. team in the
2021 Ryder Cup
The 43rd Ryder Cup Matches were held in the United States from September 24–26, 2021, on the Straits course at Whistling Straits, Haven, Wisconsin. Europe was the holder of the Ryder Cup after its win over the United States in 2018 at Le Golf ...
Kohler, Wisconsin
Kohler is a village in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, United States, along the Sheboygan River. The population was 2,120 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Sheboygan, Wisconsin Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
Originally called Ri ...
. The U.S. team won 19–9 and Scheffler went 2–0–1 including a win in his Sunday singles match against world number one
Jon Rahm
Jon Rahm Rodríguez (born 10 November 1994) is a Spanish professional golfer. He was the number one golfer in the World Amateur Golf Ranking for a record 60 weeks and later became world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, first a ...
.
World number one, Masters champion
On February 13, 2022, Scheffler won the
WM Phoenix Open
The Phoenix Open (branded as the WM Phoenix Open for sponsorship reasons) is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, held in late January/early February at TPC Scottsdale in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The tournament was originally the Arizona ...
on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff against
Patrick Cantlay
Patrick Cantlay (born March 17, 1992) is an American professional golfer. He had a successful amateur career and was the number one golfer in the World Amateur Golf Ranking for 55 weeks. He has won eight times on the PGA Tour as well as the 2021 ...
WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play
The WGC Match Play, currently titled as the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play for sponsorship reasons, is a professional men's golf tournament that has been held since 1999. It is the only one of the World Golf Championships to have been contest ...
in
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
Official World Golf Ranking
The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986.
The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolli ...
.
On April 10, 2022, Scheffler won the
Masters Tournament
The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first ma ...
, defeating
Rory McIlroy
Rory Daniel McIlroy (born 4 May 1989) is a professional golfer from Northern Ireland who is a member of both the European and PGA Tours. He is the current world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, and has spent over 100 weeks in th ...
by three strokes. Scheffler became the fifth golfer to enter the Masters Tournament ranked No. 1 in the world and go on to win the Masters, joining
Ian Woosnam
Ian Harold Woosnam (born 2 March 1958) is a Welsh professional golfer.
Nicknamed 'Woosie', Woosnam was one of the "Big Five" generation of European golfers, all born within 12 months of one another, all of whom have won majors, and made Europ ...
(1991),
Fred Couples
Frederick Steven Couples (born October 3, 1959) is an American professional golfer who has competed on the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions. A former World No. 1, he has won 64 professional tournaments, most notably the Masters Tournament ...
(1992),
Tiger Woods
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records.
*
*
* Woods is widely regarded as ...
(2001, 2002) and
Dustin Johnson
Dustin Hunter Johnson (born June 22, 1984) is an American professional golfer. He has won two major championships, the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club with a 4-under-par score of 276 and the 2020 Masters Tournament with a record score ...
(2020). The victory was his fourth for the
2022
File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...
PGA Tour season, making him the first golfer since Arnold Palmer in 1960, and only the second ever, to win as many events including the Masters in that span of time to begin a season. It was his fourth win in his last 6 starts.
At the next major, the
2022 PGA Championship
The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships i ...
, he missed the cut. On May 29, 2022, Scheffler lost the
Charles Schwab Challenge
The Colonial National Invitation, titled for sponsorship reasons as the Charles Schwab Challenge since 2019, is a professional golf tournament in Texas on the PGA Tour, played annually in May in Fort Worth at Colonial Country Club, which organ ...
in a playoff to
Sam Burns
Samuel Holland Burns (born July 23, 1996) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He played his college golf at Louisiana State University. In 2021, he won the Valspar Championship and the Sanderson Farms Championship.
Ama ...
after Burns made a 38-foot birdie putt. At the U.S. Open, he finished T-2, one stroke behind from the winner Matt Fitzpatrick.
Entering the 2022
Tour Championship
The Tour Championship (stylized as the TOUR Championship) is a golf tournament that is part of the PGA Tour. It has historically been one of the final events of the PGA Tour season; prior to 2007, its field consisted exclusively of the top 30 m ...
as the leader in the FedEx Cup standings, Scheffler started the tournament in first place with a 2-stroke lead in the starting strokes format. He extended his lead to 6 strokes after 54 holes, but shot a 3-over-par 73 in the final round to lose the tournament by one stroke to
Rory McIlroy
Rory Daniel McIlroy (born 4 May 1989) is a professional golfer from Northern Ireland who is a member of both the European and PGA Tours. He is the current world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, and has spent over 100 weeks in th ...
. This tied Scheffler for the PGA Tour record of largest 54-hole lead blown.
In September 2022, Scheffler was named 2022 PGA Tour Player of the Year, earning the Jack Nicklaus Award for the first time.
Scheffler qualified for the U.S. team at the
2022 Presidents Cup
The 2022 Presidents Cup was the 14th edition of the Presidents Cup golf competition, held at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, from September 22–25, 2022. This was Quail Hollow's first time hosting the Presidents Cup. The matches ...
; he lost three of the four matches he played, tying the other.
Personal life
Scheffler is married to Meredith Scheffler (née Scudder). His father, Scott Scheffler, grew up in
Park Ridge, New Jersey
Park Ridge is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. Park Ridge had a population of 8,645 as of the 2010 United States Census, Scheffler has three sisters named Callie, Molly and Sara.
Scheffler is a Christian. He attends Bible study with his caddie Ted Scott, who caddied for
Bubba Watson
Gerry Lester "Bubba" Watson Jr. (born November 5, 1978) is an American professional golfer. He has played predominantly on the PGA Tour, and is a multiple major champion, with victories at the Masters Tournament in 2012 and 2014. In February 201 ...
for 15 years. When requesting Scott to be his caddie, Scheffler said "I really want to work with a Christian. That's how I try to live my life." Scheffler and his close friend
Sam Burns
Samuel Holland Burns (born July 23, 1996) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He played his college golf at Louisiana State University. In 2021, he won the Valspar Championship and the Sanderson Farms Championship.
Ama ...
co-host an annual retreat with members of the College Golf Fellowship, a faith-based ministry.
Amateur wins
*2011 Legends Junior Match Play Championship
*2013
U.S. Junior Amateur The United States Junior Amateur Championship is one of the fourteen U.S. national golf championships organized by the United States Golf Association. It is open to amateur boys who are under 19 on the last day of the competition and have a USGA Ha ...
*2014 Junior Invitational
*2015 Annual Western Intercollegiate,
Big 12 Championship
The Big 12 Conference sponsors championships in 23 sports, 10 men's and 13 women's. The first conference championship awarded was the 1996 softball postseason tournament championship, which was won by Oklahoma.
From 2011 through 2016, the foot ...
Source:
Professional wins (6)
PGA Tour wins (4)
PGA Tour playoff record (1–1)
Korn Ferry Tour wins (2)
Korn Ferry Tour playoff record (1–1)
Major championships
Wins (1)
Results timeline
''Results not in chronological order in 2020.''
LA = Low amateur
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
NT = No tournament due to
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
World Golf Championships
Wins (1)
Results timeline
1Cancelled due to
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...
pandemic
NT = No tournament
"T" = tied
Note that the Championship and Invitational were discontinued from 2022.
Eisenhower Trophy
The Eisenhower Trophy (World Men's Amateur Team Championships) is the biennial World Amateur Team Championship for men organized by the International Golf Federation. Since the tournament was first played in 1958, it is named after Dwight D. Eise ...
Walker Cup
The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams: United States, and Great Britain and Ireland. The official name is the Walker Cup Match (not "Matches" as in Ryder Cup Matches). It is ...
:
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
(winners)
Professional
*
Ryder Cup
The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is named af ...
:
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...
(winners)
*
Presidents Cup
The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably ...
:
2022
File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...
(winners)
See also
*
2019 Korn Ferry Tour Finals graduates __NOTOC__
This is a list of golfers who graduated from the Korn Ferry Tour and Korn Ferry Tour Finals in 2019. The top 25 players on the Korn Ferry Tour's regular-season points list in 2019 earned PGA Tour cards for 2020. The Finals, which concluded ...