What does a caddie give a 20-month-old on a golf course? Yardage, apparently. Ted Scott knelt beside Bennett Scheffler on a TPC Scottsdale fairway Wednesday, tossed grass into the air to read the wind, and delivered the number. The toddler swung his blue plastic club. Missed. Swung again. Contact. The crowd at the WM Phoenix Open pro-am erupted as if Scottie Scheffler himself had just drained a 40-footer for eagle.
“Not Ted Scott giving Bennett a yardage and him proceeding to hit the ball,” Cameron Jourdan posted on X, the clip racking up 83,000 views within hours. “Learning from dad well.”
Advertisement
Gabby Herzig of The Athletic captured the scene from another angle, noting that while everyone arrived for Travis Kelce—Scheffler’s pro-am partner alongside Brooks Koepka—the real storyline was simpler: Bennett Scheffler had a club in his hand.
This is what happens now when the world’s No. 1 golfer brings his family to work. The competition becomes secondary. The toddler becomes the headline.
Bennett’s highlight reel started before he could walk. At six weeks old, he appeared in his father’s arms during the Travelers Championship winner’s interview in June 2024, Meredith Scheffler having carried him onto the 18th green moments after Scottie outlasted Tom Kim in a playoff. By May 2025, he was sitting on the floor of the PGA Championship scoring tent at Quail Hollow, playing with a scorecard holder while his father signed for a third major title. Two months later at Royal Portrush, he attempted to climb the slope toward the 18th green during the Open Championship trophy presentation, face-planted into the turf, and got scooped up by Scottie as the crowd roared. The Claret Jug came home. So did Bennett.
Advertisement
Scottie later admitted he used that trophy—and a few others—to bend the rules at Royal Oaks Country Club, sneaking his son into the age-restricted men’s grill. “I figured if we bring in a couple major championship trophies,” he told reporters, “they’ll let the rules slide on that one.”
The caddie who handed Bennett imaginary yardage on Wednesday has been part of these moments from the beginning.
Ted Scott’s journey from Scottie Scheffler’s accountability partner to family fixture
Scott almost never took the job at all. When Scheffler called in late 2021, fresh off a 15-year partnership with Bubba Watson that produced two green jackets, Scott was ready to retire. He had questions—specifically, about Scheffler’s attitude.
Advertisement
“I don’t know if I want to work for you,” Scott told him, referencing the fiery temperament Scheffler had shown on the course during his early Tour years. Scheffler’s response changed everything: “That’s a fair question, and I’m willing to work on it.”
Scott asked his family to pray on the decision for a week. They came back with an answer. Four years later, the partnership has produced 19 PGA Tour wins, four major championships, and an Olympic gold medal. It has also produced something less quantifiable: a bond that extends naturally beyond the ropes, from accountability partner to something closer to family.
Bennett Scheffler is 20 months old. He has attended more major trophy ceremonies than most professionals will in a career. The plastic club will eventually become steel. The yardage will eventually be real.
For now, the crowd at TPC Scottsdale got exactly what it wanted from golf’s most boisterous stage: a reminder that even the world’s most dominant player is just a dad watching his kid swing at a ball.
Read the full article here
