Charlotte (AFP) – Scottie Scheffler isn’t one to talk about the meaning of a first major win outside Augusta National or his future goals when it comes to winning more titles. The 28-year-old American captured his third career major on Sunday, seizing command on the back nine to take the PGA Championship by five strokes at Quail Hollow.
“I felt like this was as hard as I battled for a tournament in my career,” Scheffler said. “This was a pretty challenging week.” Future career goals aren’t a big topic for him. “Not really. I don’t focus on that kind of stuff,” he said. “I love coming out here and trying to compete and win golf tournaments and that’s what I’m focused on.”
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While next month’s US Open at Oakmont or the British Open at Portrush are looming into view, Scheffler says he’s looking no further than next week’s PGA Tour stop at Colonial. “After this week, I’m going to go home and get ready for next week’s tournament, and the show goes on,” Scheffler said. “It’s an endless pursuit and it’s a lot of fun. It’s definitely one of the great joys of my life to be able to compete out here.”
After winning the 2022 and 2024 Masters green jackets, asking about winning majors outside Augusta brings a discussion about styles of courses where he has won, not what the future might hold at US and British Opens. “I’ve won on some different types of tracts. This is a golf course where it was a big course. This would be a golf course that would lean more towards a bomber,” Scheffler said. “I’m not necessarily a bomber… I did a good job this week of staying patient and hitting the important shots really well.”
Scheffler’s next big challenge won’t be finding a place for his new trophy. It’s going in the same room with all his other “golf junk” at home. “Where’s it going to go? I have a room in my house called ‘The Golf Room’ and that’s where all my crap goes,” Scheffler said. “It’s just a room full of all my golf junk. I’ve got some trophies in there as well and that’s probably where this one will go. I’d like to say that it’s nicely presented, but it’s not.”
– Failed driver test – Scheffler did note his driver failed a test before the tournament at Quail Hollow and was found to be non-conforming, but he was prepared for the issue and said when it came to hitting tee shots left on Sunday, “I think that was my fault.”
“My driver did fail me this week,” Scheffler said. “We had a feeling that it was going to be coming because I’ve used that driver for over a year. With the amount of practice that I do, I felt like I was fortunate for it to last that long. It wasn’t that big of a deal. We were prepared.” One thing you can count on from Scheffler in the future is a lot of practice. “When I can be by myself and I can just practice, it’s one of the most fun things for me. It’s so peaceful, and I love the pursuit of trying to figure something out,” Scheffler said.
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