Golf: Scheffler’s Mental Fortitude A Threat To PGA Rivals

On 17 May 2024, Scottie Scheffler prepared for his second round at the US PGA Championship by “warming up in a jail cell”.

On 18 May 2025, he lifted aloft the Wanamaker Trophy as the new US PGA champion.

It was a very different US PGA experience this year for the world’s most dominant player, as he marked the day after the anniversary of his shock arrest at Valhalla by doing what he regularly does.

Winning a golf tournament.

“It’s pretty special sitting here with the trophy,” Scheffler said afterwards. “This means a lot to me.”

While Rory McIlroy’s win at the Masters was an emotional outpouring as a result of his 11-year major drought and completion of the career Grand Slam, Scheffler’s win on Sunday felt close to the opposite.

McIlroy’s Masters Sunday was a rollercoaster of highs and lows. Scheffler’s US PGA Sunday felt like an inexorable journey towards the inevitable.

That said, he was by his standards all over the place on the front nine. The control and measure we have come to associate with the world number one were rarely seen; but for a hot putter, it would have been even worse.

But no-one in golf – and few across all sports – are as mentally strong or as adept at bouncing back as Scheffler.

His bogey on the ninth meant he and a charging Jon Rahm were tied on nine under. Normal humans would likely have panicked and crumbled.

Scheffler responded by birdieing the 10th.

It was one of the six times at Quail Hollow that he followed a bogey with an immediate bounce-back birdie.

It felt like a key moment, and so it proved. Scheffler was suddenly imperious, picking up further strokes with ridiculous ease at the 14th and 15th.

The chasing Rahm faltered, bringing to mind the travails of Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh as they desperately tried to reel in Tiger Woods in his pomp.

He has a long way to go to match Woods in every sense, but there is no doubt Scheffler is the closest thing in mentality and competitive nature we have seen since the 15-time major champion’s peak years.

That was illustrated equally as well 12 months ago, even though he did not win the US PGA.

Shortly before the second round in Kentucky, Scheffler was arrested on his way into the tournament as he tried to avoid heavy traffic caused by an earlier unrelated accident in which a pedestrian died.

The picture of him in an orange prison jumpsuit went viral but he still made his tee time and, despite a minimal warm-up and with his mind surely scrambled, shot a scarcely believable five under par on day two.

His weekend challenge faltered but he still remarkably finished eighth. From mugshot and jail cell to a top-10 finish in a major within 54 hours.

A year to the day of his arrest, Scheffler demolished Quail Hollow’s infamous three-hole stretch from the 16th that is dubbed The Green Mile, named in honour of Stephen King’s prison novel that later became a movie.

He was five under from the 14th to the 18th and that detached him from the pack, giving him the cushion that meant his scrappy front nine on Sunday was not terminal.

It may well not have been lost on him that a year on from his own jail saga, it was down The Green Mile that he took charge of the US PGA.

Scheffler serves reminder of his talents

After McIlroy’s victory at the Masters last month, there was dreamy talk of a stress-free player winning a second major of the year at a course he loves.

The game’s other big names were also not in top form, other than Bryson DeChambeau. It looked ripe for a McIlroy double.

But then Scheffler – whose year started slowly as a result of a freak hand injury – served a reminder of his quality at the Byron Nelson Classic two weeks ago with an eight-shot victory.

Scheffler was back. But he was far from content.

Two majors are scant return for a player who has been recognised as the world’s top dog for several years, and that frustration perhaps leaked through his normally placid demeanour after his first round at Quail Hollow.

Unusually irritable in his post-round news conference, he criticised the PGA’s decision not to allow preferred lies – when players are allowed to lift and clean mud from their ball and then replace it without penalty.

His criticism followed a wayward shot – with a ‘mudball’ – on the 16th that cost him a double bogey.

“I felt like this was as hard as I battled for a tournament in my career – this was a pretty challenging week,” Scheffler said.

“Sometimes I wish I didn’t care as much as I did – but at the end of the day, I’m very grateful and looking forward to getting home and celebrating.”

Once his mastery of The Green Mile got him out in front on Saturday evening, there was an inevitability about who would hold the Wanamaker Trophy aloft 24 hours later.

Closing out the US PGA as expected was the eighth time since the start of 2024 Scheffler had entered a final round holding or sharing the lead… and the eighth time he converted them into victories.

It will have been a chilling reminder to McIlroy – understandably out of sorts at Quail Hollow after a month of celebrations – DeChambeau, Rahm and the rest, of the grinding efficiency of the 28-year-old.

Adding the US PGA title to his two Masters titles takes him halfway to the career Grand Slam club.

The US Open – a test of mentality and efficiency, and in which he has a share of second and a third place already to his name – is next.

Scheffler will be the clear favourite at Oakmont and anyone finishing in front of him will have had a good week.

And if you are wondering if Oakmont will suit Scheffler, the last time the classic Pennsylvania course hosted the US Open, an unknown teenage amateur shot an opening 69 to sit in a share for fourth.

His name was Scottie Scheffler.

Bbc.com