Scottie Scheffler didn’t dwell much on the future of the PGA Tour during an extended break from competition, but said he’s “extremely grateful” that Tiger Woods has taken an active role in shaping the future of the professional game.
“He’s doing a whole lot. Tiger’s not someone that’s going to go at anything 50 percent, he’s going to go 100 percent into whatever he’s doing and right now that’s a lot of stuff for the tour,” Scheffler said Wednesday.
“He has our best interests in mind and he’s not going to compromise when it comes to what’s best for the players. His voice definitely holds a lot of weight. So for us as players, it’s great to have him on our side, it’s great that he wants to do this stuff.”
Scheffler hasn’t competed since the Ryder Cup in September and didn’t play a single event during the fall series. But he traveled to the Bahamas for this week’s Hero World Challenge in part to knock some rust off his game, but also to support Woods, the tournament host.
Woods is going to play for the first time since withdrawing from the Masters in April and recovering from a Lisfranc injury. He has also taken the lead role among the players in the ongoing discussions about the future of the PGA Tour, whose framework agreement with the Public Investment Fund and the DP World Tour is currently set to expire Dec. 31.
“That’s another thing, he doesn’t have to do that. He could easily sail off into the sunset, never touch a club again, never do anything again, just go live his life and enjoy kind of the second half of his life and do whatever, hang out with his kids,” Scheffler said.
“But he continues to come back and want to compete. He continues to do what’s best for the players and the PGA
Tour. So it’s pretty inspirational for the rest of us that are involved in the game with what he’s been doing right now.”
Scheffler admitted he has not been intimately involved in the discussions, and it was news to him when Rory McIlroy resigned from the policy board and was replaced by Jordan Spieth. He has been enjoying an extended break that included a week in Europe with his family before returning home to Dallas, where he doesn’t see his tour buddies on a regular basis.
Back on the course in the Bahamas, Scheffler is hearing two things — more chatter about the tour’s future, and the sound of Tiger back grinding on the range.
“It’s just a lot of fun for me to see him out here. I love looking down the range and seeing him hit balls and hearing that sound. He’s still got the same sound, which is amazing,” he said. “I feel rusty coming off two months without a tournament. He goes almost a year at a time and he comes back and he plays fine golf.
“For him to come back and make cuts in majors and do what he has been doing in his comebacks — it’s really hard to comprehend until you do it out here. To make a cut in a major, you really have to be on your game. I couldn’t imagine taking a year off and going to try to make the cut at the Masters.
“For him to be able to do it like he has been doing it for so many years is pretty miraculous.”
–Field Level Media
