FORT WORTH, Texas — Scottie Scheffler is skipping some of his usual prep work for the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial after winning the PGA Championship last weekend.
The world No. 1 doesn’t want an emphasis on rest and recovery to be misunderstood.
“I didn’t just show up here to Fort Worth to just walk around and celebrate last week,” Scheffler said Wednesday. “I’m here for a reason, and that’s not to just play a couple of ceremonious rounds and then ride off in the sunset. I’m here for a reason. That’s to compete.”
Scheffler’s third major also set him up to be the first player since Dustin Johnson in 2017 to win three consecutive PGA Tour starts.
He won his hometown CJ Cup Byron Nelson north of Dallas two weeks before the PGA, then skipped the $20 million signature event at the Truist Championship before winning at Quail Hollow.
Colonial isn’t quite on the level of the Nelson for Scheffler, who attended that event for years as a kid and made his pro debut there 11 years ago. Still, Colonial is in Texas, and not far from family and friends in Dallas.
“I think any time I can sleep in my own bed and play a golf tournament, it’s a nice thing,” said Scheffler, who has finished in the top three with a pair of runner-ups the past three years at Colonial. “I love the golf course here. I think it’s a great test. That’s also one of the big reasons I try to come to this event each year is just for the golf course.”
Davis Riley is the defending Colonial champion and coming off his best finish at a major, tied for second behind Scheffler at the PGA.
His first individual Tour victory (he won the 2023 Zurich Classic team event with Nick Hardy) came in the debut of a renovation of the 7,289-yard, par-70 Colonial course made famous by Ben Hogan, the only back-to-back winner in Fort Worth (he did it in 1946-47 and 1952-53).
“It was really firm because it was brand new,” Riley, who is the same age as Scheffler at 28, said of last year’s conditions. “It softened up. I think the fairways are … maybe a little bit softer, more grown in. I would say the rough is a little bit up, but I think the greens, the quickness and the firmness will be very similar as to what we saw last year.”
Tee times and groupings for the first round of the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club.
Jordan Spieth is the other hometown favorite alongside Scheffler. And while his fellow Texas alum beat him to the first victory at the Nelson, Spieth is the one with his name on the wall of champions along the No. 1 tee box at Colonial. He won in 2016.
Spieth missed the cut at the PGA in pursuit of the career grand slam. He finished 19 under at the Nelson, 12 shots behind Scheffler, who won by eight while tying the PGA Tour scoring record of 253.
This is the fourth time Scheffler has had a chance to win three consecutive starts, all since 2022. Another significant feat in that span is joining Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players with 15 victories before turning 29.
Johnson’s three-peat in 2017 included the Genesis Invitational, WGC-Mexico Championship and WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
Now that he’s back in his football-mad home state, Scheffler was asked if his rare show of raw emotion in slamming his cap on the green after winning the PGA was his version of a football spike.
“When I played football, I didn’t score very many touchdowns, so I wasn’t too experienced in that,” Scheffler said. “I don’t really have much to say on that. I think I just kind of let my emotions out a little bit, and I guess that’s where my brain decided it wanted to go at the time. I really have absolutely no explanation for it at all.”
Only one player has celebrated on the 18th green of the Byron Nelson and Colonial in the same year: Hogan in 1946.
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