There’s no rest this week for Scottie Scheffler following his victory at the PGA Championship.
In fact, he’s playing each of the next two weeks as he will play the Charles Schwab Challenge not far from his Dallas home followed by next week’s Memorial Tournament, where he is the defending champion.
Now in his 140th consecutive week as the No. 1 player in the Official World Ranking—the third-longest streak behind two different ones by Tiger Woods—Scheffler was asked an interesting question Wednesday following his pro-am round.
Would the achievements be the same if the men’s professional game were not divided?
“Who knows? I only get to compete against those guys four times a year,” Scheffler said, referring to the LIV Golf League players who now longer can play on the PGA Tour. “That was their choice; not mine.
“At the end of the day, I’m here competing and doing the best I can, and that kind of stuff, what’s the point of me thinking about it, you know? There’s really absolutely no point to that.
“We get four chances to compete against them. Last week went well. I get another chance here in a few weeks.”
Scheffler won his third major championship which happened to be his 15th PGA Tour event with his five-shot victory at Quail Hollow. LIV’s Bryson DeChambeau tied for second while Jon Rahm, who was tied for the lead briefly on the back nine, finished in a tie for eighth.
They will all be together again next month at Oakmont, site of the U.S. Open, where DeChambeau defends his title. Rahm, who won the 2021 U.S. Open, as well as Brooks Koepka, Cam Smith and Phil Mickelson will be among the other major winners in the field.
As for any resolution to the talks between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which backs LIV Golf, Scheffler—like most outside—is unaware of where it is headed.
“That’s for the higher-ups to decide,” he said. “I have said it a few times this year. If you want to figure out what’s going to happen in the game of golf, go to the other tour and ask those guys.
“I’m still here playing the PGA Tour. We had a tour where we all played together, and the guys that left, it’s their responsibility I think to bring the tours back together. Go see where they’re playing this week and ask them.”
LIV Golf is off this week and doesn’t play again for two weeks when it has its eighth event of the season to be played outside of Washington, D.C., the week before the U.S. Open.
The question has been raised before as to Scheffler’s level of dominance had some of the players he sees at the majors also been part of PGA Tour fields.
Scheffler has won twice this year after posting seven victories last year, including the Masters, the Players Championship and four signature events.
He skipped the most recent signature event, the Truist Championship the week prior to the PGA, because he played—and won—the Byron Nelson tournament and now is in the midst of three in a row.
“Every tournament I try to treat differently,” Scheffler said. “Coming off a major win, obviously there's a lot of emotion and stuff that comes with winning that golf tournament, but at the end of the day I didn’t just show up here to Fort Worth to just walk around and celebrate last week.
“I’m here for a reason, and that’s not to just play a couple of ceremonious rounds and then ride off in the sunset. I’m here for a reason. That’s to compete.
My prep work for this tournament will obviously be a bit different than it normally is for an event. I didn't really do much yesterday or the day before. Yesterday I went to the gym and kind of got back doing that stuff a little bit, but this is my first time on the course.
“I’m not doing my normal practice routine just because I need to focus more on rest than I do getting prepared for the course. Fortunately this is a golf course that I’ve been around numerous times. Today I’ve got a good feel for the speed of the greens, hit a couple of bunker shots, hit some chips out of the rough.
“Outside of that I need to give my brain and body a rest to prepare for another event.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as As Golf’s Split Drags on, Scottie Scheffler Was Asked If His Dominance Is Compromised.
