The Open Championship: Scottie Scheffler is still searching for his ‘why’

Once a tradition takes hold in golf, it sticks around. The Masters has its azaleas and pimentos. The U.S. Open offers its annual punch in the face. The Ryder Cup has a reliable supply of rowdy fans. And now, the Open Championship has become the site of the annual Scottie Scheffler Life Lesson Hour — and that’s in no way a complaint.

One year ago, Scheffler tried to make sense of the heavy cost of victory. “This is not a fulfilling life,” he said. “It’s fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it’s not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart.” It was a remarkable press conference, raw in its honesty and stark in its deconstruction of the legend of the hyper-driven athlete.

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This year at Royal Birkdale, arriving as the defending champion, he tried to back away from that level of intensity — “I’ll try to keep that stuff to myself this week” — but then, like he couldn’t resist, dove right back in to the deep waters of competitive motivation.

This year’s topic for Scheffler: figuring out life’s whys.

“Why am I doing this?” he mused. “Why do I want to win this tournament so badly? Why do I choose to play this sport for a living? When I have a really good understanding of what my ‘why’ is when I’m playing, I think that’s when I’m … at peace the most.”

Scheffler has reached that point of accomplishment where even his down years would be career performances from virtually anyone else. He’s won “only” once this year, in January at the Amex, but he’s placed in the top 5 in nine of the 15 events he’s played. His major finishes so far: 2, T14, T4. And he just missed the cut in a tournament for the first time since 2022.

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“I’ve had a very solid year,” he said. “Frustrating at times because I’ve been close, and I haven’t been able to get it done like I have been in years past.”

Even in this “down” year, Scheffler still ranks first on the PGA Tour in overall strokes gained, among many other categories. (Don’t ask him to care about any of that.) He struggles — again, a relative term — on and around the greens, ranking 13th in approach and 14th in putting. That inability to close out a hole to his satisfaction has led to a few moments — a bark at his caddie, a sarcastic fist pump — that have seemed out of character for the normally chill Scheffler. But to him, it’s all part of a larger pattern.

“I get really into, like, the heat of the moment, and I think that’s sometimes why you’ll see me get frustrated,” he said. “It would almost be easier if I didn’t want to win this badly. If losing didn’t hurt so much, it might be easier to come out and play. But then again, when I retire and I sit back, I’m going to miss the feeling of waking up in the morning and not being able to eat breakfast because your stomach hurts because you’re anticipating the day.”

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Scheffler will tee off at 4:58 a.m. ET on Thursday alongside Tyrrell Hatton and Bryson DeChambeau. He’ll carry a mantra that, for instance, Tiger Woods would never even think, let alone utter in public.

“You can’t win every single golf tournament,” Scheffler said. “You just can’t do it. Nobody’s been able to do it. In golf, no matter what, you lose a lot more often than you win.”

And so we’re back around to motivation, and achievement, and legacy. No matter how hard Scheffler tries to distance himself from such matters, he always talks his way right back to them. He has little patience for historical perspective — “I’ve never been one to play for history or legacy or anything like that” — and prefers to keep the focus on competition and the things he can control.

“I’d much rather be remembered for doing things the right way,” he said, “than the guy that won all the tournaments.”

He’ll get the chance to try both, starting on Thursday.