Scottie Scheffler is speaking about scores. It’s PGA Championship week at Aronimink Golf Club, but his mind wandered back to a junior event he played when he was 12. It was a qualifier, he explained, where players could either use the result to enter that week’s main tournament or save it for later. However, his father, Scott, had a strict plan: his son could only play in the qualifier, not the tournament, because the family had other commitments.
Scott dropped off Scottie, who played and called his dad afterward. “He goes, ‘I don’t like this. This is not something I want to hear,'” Scheffler recalled. “I said, ‘Well, dad, I won the qualifier.’ So if I win the qualifier, I get into the tournament, and I get to save the exemption. So I’m like, I got to play in the tournament.” His father replied, “Scottie, I told you, you can’t play in the tournament.” But Scheffler insisted, “But dad, I won.”
He still remembers that story vividly. He was simply listening to his mother.
During his pre-PGA press conference, Scheffler was asked for advice for young golfers and their parents. He said his parents never pushed him. They would drop him off with coach Randy Smith, and he was on his own. “I think there were more important things for them than my golf game,” Scheffler said. “Growing up, especially with youth sports today, you see a lot of parents who are overzealous. It’s not from a lack of care—they want their kids to succeed. But sometimes pushing isn’t the best way.” He added, “I did my best when my parents dropped me off at the golf course and let me do my thing. One of the first things Randy taught my dad was that when I get to the course, I take my own bag off the cart and set up my area. He doesn’t need to be out there; this is my thing. They guided me, helped when needed, but never pushed me to be anything other than a good student and a good person. It wasn’t all about golf with them.”
His mother, Diane, had an interesting rule: “She never asked me what I shot,” Scheffler said. “She said, ‘If you want me to know what you shot, you’ll tell me. I don’t have to ask.'” Good advice, and the benefits are clear. Later in the press conference, Scheffler spoke about his internal focus and love for improvement—roots that trace back to that approach.
But the question lingers: Did he play in that junior tournament? And how did he do? He remembered that too. “So he ends up letting me play in the tournament,” Scheffler said. “I remember calling him after it ended because the tournament was a couple of hours away, and he had to leave me there for a while. I was like 12 years old. He’s probably not going to be happy I’m telling this story. I called him after—everything was cleaned up, and he wasn’t coming back for another hour or two. So I was just practicing. I told him, ‘Well, dad—I shot this, finished fifth. Now I’m fully exempt. We don’t have to worry about qualifiers anymore.’ He said, ‘OK, great. I’ll be there in a couple hours.'”
