Scottie Scheffler reclaimed the top spot in the Official World Golf Rankings following his T2 finish at last week’s PGA Championship. He has been playing exceptionally well and entered this weekend at the Charles Schwab Challenge feeling good about his game.
But the Colonial is not just another stop on the PGA Tour for Scheffler. It’s basically his home course. The Texan-native grew up going to this tournament as a child. Prior to the tournament on Wednesday, he spoke about what it means to him.
“I remember showing up here with my dad and just coming out and watching… So come out here on practice round days and watch guys,” per Golfweek. “I typically liked the practice round days more just because you could get closer to guys and I liked just watching.”
He then dropped an interesting admission, regarding who inspired him.
“Jordan (Spieth), he was another guy I looked up to growing up,” he said. “He was always a few years ahead of me and crushing it from a young age. So he was always a guy I looked up to and was able to bounce things off of when I was thinking about turning pro… He’s always been a guy that’s given me great advice.”
It’s a bit surprising Spieth provided such an inspiration. After all, there is less than a three year gap in age between them. But Spieth took the golf world by storm at such a young age, likely as Scheffler was an amateur looking to go pro.
Scheffler is playing like he knows this course. He posted back-to-back 67s and is 6-under entering the weekend. Spieth, who is nursing a wrist injury, missed the cut.