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DUBLIN, Ohio – At the 2024 Memorial Tournament, Scottie Scheffler finally was on the receiving end of the coveted winner’s handshake from host Jack Nicklaus. It was a meaningful moment for Scheffler, who recalled coming up short at Muirfield Village Golf Club in 2021 and getting a cool consolation prize from the 18-time major winner affectionately called the Golden Bear.
“He shakes my hand and he says, ‘Listen Scottie, you didn't make the putt today, but one day you're going to make the putt on this green to win this tournament.’ And I said, ‘Well thanks, Mr. Nicklaus, I really appreciate the support, thanks for a great week year, yada, yada, yada.’ And a couple years later, he was right, I made the putt to win the tournament,” Scheffler recalled during his Wednesday pre-tournament press conference for the 2025 Memorial. “It was just a really cool kind of full-circle moment.”
Having already won last year at the courses famously connected to Arnold Palmer and Bobby Jones, two of the faces that would be etched alongside that of Nicklaus’s on the Mount Rushmore of golf, Scheffler added winning at Jack’s Place, shooting a final-round 2-over-par 74. That was enough to hang on for a one-stroke victory – his 11th of now 15 career PGA Tour titles – at the Memorial.
"I know he didn't have his A game,” Nicklaus said of Scheffler’s performance on a tricky final round that sent scores soaring. “But he put enough of his A game together to win the golf tournament and that's what it's all about."
That is becoming a Scheffler hallmark and it proved true at the PGA Championship two weeks ago, where Scheffler had a remarkable ability to bounce back from his miscues. The Tour’s Bounce Back stat measures a golfer’s ability to recover after a bogey or worse with a birdie or better. The Tour average is just over 20 percent. At one point during the final round of the PGA, Scheffler had a 60 percent bounce back rate while the rest of the field was approximately 16 percent. The stat is reflective of Scheffler’s resilience – he has finished second on Tour in the bounce back stat each of the last three years. When asked to explain why he’s so proficient at bouncing back, Scheffler cracked, “Just bogey the holes before the easy holes, I guess.”
After he chuckled, he gave a more revealing explanation that highlighted the winner within and also sounded as if it could’ve been Nicklaus speaking about himself.
“I feel like I've always battled to handle things the best way I can. I'm going to make plenty of mistakes over a 72-hole tournament, but it's more important for me not to let the mistakes bug me and to continue to bounce back and keep fighting out there,” Scheffler said. “I feel like my attitude has gotten better over the years, and I feel like that's why that statistic would be, I guess, one of my stronger ones. Yeah, that's definitely something that I take pride in, is being able to bounce back from mistakes.”
With his victory at the PGA, Scheffler joined Tiger Woods and Nicklaus as just the third player to win three career majors and 15 PGA Tour titles before age 29. Nicklaus would go on to win 73 titles during his illustrious career, but he never showed up to a tournament overconfident and expecting to win, he said.
“I have always tried to feel like I was climbing a mountain,” Nicklaus said on Tuesday. “I did that through most of my career while I was playing and was trying to, always trying to get better, always trying to improve, always trying to say that, you know, this is a hard mountain for me to climb, I got to really work hard to get myself ready and prepared for it. As long as I got myself prepared and ready to play, and I gave it my best effort, I didn't always win, but I gave it my best effort.”
Count Scheffler, the player sitting at the top of golf’s mountain as world No. 1, as another mountain climber in the Nicklaus mold. He treats each tournament as if he must start at the bottom of the mountain alongside the rest of the 72-man field.
“People ask, I feel like a lot, what's it like defending this week?” Scheffler said. “I'm like, ‘Well, what does that do for me? Nothing.’ I have some experience on the golf course that can be helpful, but at the end of the day, you start even par, and I want to be in contention on Sunday, and you definitely don't show up too high or too low.”
Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee said Scheffler, who finished T-4 last week at the Charles Schwab Challenge after a disappointing second round but won his previous two starts by eight and five strokes respectively, is developing a killer instinct that only a few players – Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Woods and Nicklaus – in the last 40 years have possessed.
“Scottie’s getting to a point now where he’s so relentless and hits so many great shots,” Chamblee said, “he’s so congenial and so nice but he is very competitive and he does, you get the sense, want to step on your throat when you’re competing.”
Chamblee isn’t the only one to draw a comparison between Scheffler and Nicklaus. So, too, did the Golden Bear.
“What I like about him is he does it with ease. He never looks like he is frustrated, he’s very calm about it,” Nicklaus said. “He reminds me of the way I played. He never looks flustered.”
And come Sunday, the circle may be complete again with another winner’s handshake between Nicklaus and Scheffler.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Scottie Scheffler returns to defend title at Jack's Place at Memorial
Continue reading...
“He shakes my hand and he says, ‘Listen Scottie, you didn't make the putt today, but one day you're going to make the putt on this green to win this tournament.’ And I said, ‘Well thanks, Mr. Nicklaus, I really appreciate the support, thanks for a great week year, yada, yada, yada.’ And a couple years later, he was right, I made the putt to win the tournament,” Scheffler recalled during his Wednesday pre-tournament press conference for the 2025 Memorial. “It was just a really cool kind of full-circle moment.”
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Having already won last year at the courses famously connected to Arnold Palmer and Bobby Jones, two of the faces that would be etched alongside that of Nicklaus’s on the Mount Rushmore of golf, Scheffler added winning at Jack’s Place, shooting a final-round 2-over-par 74. That was enough to hang on for a one-stroke victory – his 11th of now 15 career PGA Tour titles – at the Memorial.
"I know he didn't have his A game,” Nicklaus said of Scheffler’s performance on a tricky final round that sent scores soaring. “But he put enough of his A game together to win the golf tournament and that's what it's all about."
That is becoming a Scheffler hallmark and it proved true at the PGA Championship two weeks ago, where Scheffler had a remarkable ability to bounce back from his miscues. The Tour’s Bounce Back stat measures a golfer’s ability to recover after a bogey or worse with a birdie or better. The Tour average is just over 20 percent. At one point during the final round of the PGA, Scheffler had a 60 percent bounce back rate while the rest of the field was approximately 16 percent. The stat is reflective of Scheffler’s resilience – he has finished second on Tour in the bounce back stat each of the last three years. When asked to explain why he’s so proficient at bouncing back, Scheffler cracked, “Just bogey the holes before the easy holes, I guess.”
You must be registered for see images
After he chuckled, he gave a more revealing explanation that highlighted the winner within and also sounded as if it could’ve been Nicklaus speaking about himself.
“I feel like I've always battled to handle things the best way I can. I'm going to make plenty of mistakes over a 72-hole tournament, but it's more important for me not to let the mistakes bug me and to continue to bounce back and keep fighting out there,” Scheffler said. “I feel like my attitude has gotten better over the years, and I feel like that's why that statistic would be, I guess, one of my stronger ones. Yeah, that's definitely something that I take pride in, is being able to bounce back from mistakes.”
With his victory at the PGA, Scheffler joined Tiger Woods and Nicklaus as just the third player to win three career majors and 15 PGA Tour titles before age 29. Nicklaus would go on to win 73 titles during his illustrious career, but he never showed up to a tournament overconfident and expecting to win, he said.
“I have always tried to feel like I was climbing a mountain,” Nicklaus said on Tuesday. “I did that through most of my career while I was playing and was trying to, always trying to get better, always trying to improve, always trying to say that, you know, this is a hard mountain for me to climb, I got to really work hard to get myself ready and prepared for it. As long as I got myself prepared and ready to play, and I gave it my best effort, I didn't always win, but I gave it my best effort.”
Count Scheffler, the player sitting at the top of golf’s mountain as world No. 1, as another mountain climber in the Nicklaus mold. He treats each tournament as if he must start at the bottom of the mountain alongside the rest of the 72-man field.
You must be registered for see images
“People ask, I feel like a lot, what's it like defending this week?” Scheffler said. “I'm like, ‘Well, what does that do for me? Nothing.’ I have some experience on the golf course that can be helpful, but at the end of the day, you start even par, and I want to be in contention on Sunday, and you definitely don't show up too high or too low.”
Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee said Scheffler, who finished T-4 last week at the Charles Schwab Challenge after a disappointing second round but won his previous two starts by eight and five strokes respectively, is developing a killer instinct that only a few players – Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Woods and Nicklaus – in the last 40 years have possessed.
“Scottie’s getting to a point now where he’s so relentless and hits so many great shots,” Chamblee said, “he’s so congenial and so nice but he is very competitive and he does, you get the sense, want to step on your throat when you’re competing.”
Chamblee isn’t the only one to draw a comparison between Scheffler and Nicklaus. So, too, did the Golden Bear.
“What I like about him is he does it with ease. He never looks like he is frustrated, he’s very calm about it,” Nicklaus said. “He reminds me of the way I played. He never looks flustered.”
And come Sunday, the circle may be complete again with another winner’s handshake between Nicklaus and Scheffler.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Scottie Scheffler returns to defend title at Jack's Place at Memorial
Continue reading...
