And a table tennis player…
“I’ve known him since we were kids,” said tour partner Sam Burns. It’s hard to imagine how competitive he is.
How about a pickleball player?
“They think about it You hit a golf ball and it’s constant, it’s always the same distance from the ball,” said Ben Jones, the world’s top pickleball player. “So I didn’t expect him to move and be as athletic as he is.”
What does any of this have to do with golf? Just everything. With six wins this year and four other top-five finishes, Scheffler sets himself apart from the field with powerful drives, unmatched ball-striking and a mental focus that is the envy of his competitors. But he’s also one of the most athletic golfers on tour, loosening his 6-foot-3 frame, generating power from his legs and hips and using hand-eye coordination for perfect contact.
“He can do a lot of things that most golfers can’t,” says John Fields, Scheffler’s coach at the University of Texas.
An example? Fields remembers watching Scheffler play basketball as a teenager.
“Do you think many men out there can do that?” It requires fields.
It’s true – any talk of the vertical jump in the golf world is largely subjective. Phil Mickelson won the 2004 Masters — but Fields said it’s just another part of Scheffler’s athletic arsenal. The longtime Texas coach began recruiting Scheffler when the golfer was 12 years old and over the years saw him both on the golf course and in the basketball gym. Scheffler always hinted at a career in pro golf — he wore pants during junior rounds to look like tour players — but he was also a good athlete who played a variety of sports.
“Being able to play and compete in multiple sports and learn how to play on a team — I didn’t really focus on one thing as a kid,” he recently explained. “My dad always made sure I could play and have fun.”
Scheffler was born in New Jersey but raised in Dallas, so it’s no surprise that he played youth football as a grade schooler, lining out for a YMCA team called the Vikings. The sport changed with the seasons, and Scheffle played basketball throughout middle school.
“Scotty was never someone you wanted guarding you, because no matter what the sport, he always brought a lot of intensity, especially on defense,” said Clayton Murtha, a childhood friend and high school teammate.
Golf always takes most of the time, and Scheffler has scored several victories in smaller events. In the year He won the US Junior Amateur in 2013 and was just 17 when he made his PGA Tour debut in 2014 at the local Byron Nelson Championship.
Longtime golf coach Randy Smith remembers being approached by Scheffler shortly after winning the US Junior Amateur. He committed to Texas four months ago and is about to start high school.
The next week he came and said: ‘I know a lot of people say I shouldn’t do this and I know what you’re going to say, but I just wanted to tell you I’m going. I played basketball my senior year,’ Smith said. “I think I was surprised. I said I like it.
Scheffler was the sixth man off the bench for a talented Highland Park team. In high school, he was over a foot tall and crafty, ready to crash the boards or shoot from the wing.
“He’s sitting there looking at three-pointers like hot fudge sundaes,” Smith said.
Scheffler was listed at 6-1 as a senior and had no NBA aspirations Speaking to a Florida reporter at the time He said he was playing hoops “for fun. That’s what my friends were doing, so it was nice to have a break from golf.
There was at least one incident when his basketball hobby collided with his golf pursuit. As a youngster, Scheffler was teeing off in a friend’s backyard a week before the state golf championships when he suffered “the dumbest injury ever.” He was running down the court while rolling his ankles and kicking the “Ginormos Acorn.”
In 2021, Scheffler recalled to reporters, “My friends were terrified because they heard the acorns crack.”
He had to play soccer and sneaker golf the next week, but he managed to win the second of three state titles. Regardless, the injury has put his friends on high alert.
Another Highland Park classmate, Matt Fraschla, described playing pickup games in the school gym during the summer of Scheffler’s senior year.
“The running joke is that anytime Scotty drives to the basket, everybody gets out of the way,” said Fraschla, an assistant basketball coach at Harvard.
Scheffler still plays the occasional basketball game as well as other sports, but as he recently stated, “I try to limit it a little bit because I can’t get hurt.”
Pickleball is of particular interest these days. Scheffler played casually and competitively with great players such as Jones and Anna Leigh Waters, as well as Tom Dundon, owner of the Professional Pickleball Association.
“I remember the first time I played against him – he was so raw,” said Jones, a 25-year-old sports star. “And his footwork was funny. I was worried he was going to hurt himself because he was going all out for the ball.
The two played again a few months later at a celebrity pro-am event, and John Scheffler could tell he had been practicing.
“It was amazing how much better the game turned out,” Jones said. He was good at what he was good at.
Burns played every sport possible with Scheffler over the years. In pickleball, he prefers to line up as an ally rather than an enemy. “He takes the court, so I don’t have to do much, which is good,” Burns said.
Because Scheffler is such a competitor and determined to succeed, Burns said, he thrives in whatever sport he does. It all translates to golf, of course: an athletic sport that allows him to generate power despite unusual footwork, hand-eyes. Coordination to take strong actions and always maintain good communication, strategic thinking with precision and strategic thinking to help recover from failures and make the best of the world.
But one question remains: can it still be sedated? As Scheffler admits, there’s probably too much going on right now to risk a bad fall or ankle injury.
Still, Burns said, “I’m sure if you can’t tell him he’ll try.”