AUGUSTA, Ga. – As Scott Scheffler’s only son, Scottie, zeroed in on a second green jacket, the tissue the elder Scheffler was carrying seemed to be on its final leg, a crumpled mess and on the verge of falling apart. Scottie still had a couple holes to play, but this 88th Masters was clearly well in hand, and every few steps, Scott wiped away a tear.
Perhaps those emotions were representative of a proud father, watching his son show the world once again why he’s the undisputed No. 1 player in professional golf.
Or maybe, Scott Scheffler knows his son’s life is about to change forever – and it has nothing to do with the game that Scottie makes look so easy.
For as much as Scottie, at this moment, is unlike everyone on the golf course, he will soon share something with billions:
In a matter of days, this two-time Masters champion will become a father.
Winning another Masters, this time by four shots, is exceptional; only 17 players before Scottie had won golf’s most coveted tournament on multiple occasions. Extending his streak of rounds of par or better to 35 – he’s not shot over par since the third round of last summer’s Tour Championship – is downright extraordinary. There’s the Tiger-like ball-striking numbers, the weeks atop the world rankings that are piling up, the showers of praise.
But the sweetest parts in life, many feel, are the ones that Scottie has yet to experience, though he soon will:
First breaths.
First steps, and words.
Little hugs, littler kisses. Birthdays, trips to get ice cream, reading the same favorite book over and over. And if Scottie keeps up even an ounce of this stellar play, seeing his child run onto the green after a big win and scooping them up into his arms.
Max Homa just watched his and everyone else’s best shots do little to threaten the world-beating Scottie. But when Homa stepped off the interview podium, he had his wife, Lacey, and their son, Cam, to fall into.
Soon, Scottie, in the increasingly rare instance in which he loses, will have that, too.
“Just soak it in,” Homa said, offering his best advice to the father-to-be. “It goes by real fast. Each moment you have, you will not get again. Just appreciate kind of each step along the way because it’s crazy but it’s fun, and you build some amazing memories with your wife, and it’s chaos. It’s beautiful chaos. It’s very similar to golf in a way.”
Yet, as madness ensued around Amen Corner on Sunday afternoon – water balls by Ludvig Åberg and Collin Morikawa at No. 11, an air-mailed 9-iron by Homa at No. 12, all shots that ended those players’ respective challenges – Scottie kept calm, his head down.
The sentiment shared by many over the weekend was that the only person who could stop Scottie from winning another Masters was his wife, Meredith, who was back home in Dallas. Earlier in the week, Scottie said he’d withdraw if their little bundle of joy decided to arrive early; not only did that call never come, neither did the anticipation of it, with Scottie left in the right mental state to execute.
After the final putt dropped, of course, was different.
“I feel like playing professional golf is an endlessly not satisfying career,” the 27-year-old said during his winner’s presser. “For instance, in my head, all I can think about right now is getting home. I’m not thinking about the tournament. I’m not thinking about the green jacket. I’m trying to answer your questions, and I’m trying to get home.”
Though Scottie says he’s teeing it up next week in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, it’s also likely that the next time we see him, he’ll go by two titles: world’s best golfer and world’s best dad. Scottie already is an uncle, as his oldest sister, Callie, has a nearly 2-year-old son, Hayes. Scottie says Hayes wants to be just like his dad, Scottie’s brother-in-law, Andrew, following him around with both a plastic lawn mower and plastic golf clubs.
Scottie doesn’t know if his child will love golf or not. He just knows that he’s going to love his child.
“When it comes to having a kid,” Scottie said, “every single person says that it changes your life, and it’s the most special thing in the world. … Marriage has been such a tremendous aspect of my life; I cannot even imagine what being a parent is going to be like.”
Scott Scheffler knows well. Scott was a stay-at-home dad while Scottie’s mom, Diane, worked at a law firm. Together they raised four great kids, who all love the Lord and are achieving success in their own rights. Scottie just happens to be prodigious at golf; he was from a young age, winning the U.S. Junior Amateur before his senior year of high school and then helping the Texas Longhorns to an NCAA runner-up finish as a sophomore. Now, he’s a 12-time winner as a pro, nine of those on the PGA Tour, and two of those coming here at Augusta National.
“He always had it in him,” said Morikawa, Scottie’s peer since junior golf.
Scottie’s caddie, Ted Scott, agrees that his player possesses a superpower.
“To be good at everything,” Scott says.
There’s a decent chance that will soon include fatherhood.
Scottie sees his dad as the perfect role model, a man who, he says, would lay down in traffic if it meant sparing his son, or any of his four kids, from a mere scratch.
“Both my parents would,” Scottie said. “They are such special people. … I think how much love they had for us growing up. I mean, that’s what I’m looking forward to most, I think, about being a parent is being able to love, love my child like my parents loved me.”
The pockets in his green jacket can surely hold plenty of tissues.
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