Fans watching the final round of the Tour Championship will have likely noticed that players and caddies are wearing yellow ribbons, but what is the reason for that?
The gesture is being made in honor of Joel, the nephew of Scottie Scheffler’s caddie, Ted Scott, who is recovering from an injury.
Before the East Lake event, the last time Scott had caddied for Scheffler had been the third round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship, but he missed Sunday’s final round to return home for what was described at the time as a “private family matter.”
As a result, Scheffler turned to Brad Payne for Sunday’s play in the event, who had previously caddied for him at the 2024 PGA Championship.
Scott was still absent during last week’s BMW Championship, with Scheffler enlisting the services of Chris Kirk's regular caddie Mike Cromie for the event, which the World No.1 won.
At the time, Scheffler was reluctant to go into the specifics of Scott’s absence, saying: “I think Ted's where he needs to be right now, and I think caddying is probably the last thing on his mind, as it should be."
Scott returned to work alongside Scheffler for the Tour Championship, where he broke his silence ahead of the final round with a video message posted to Instagram.
He said: “Many of you know that I left the St. Jude Classic early, didn’t caddie on Sunday. Why? Because we have a devastating family emergency, probably the hardest thing I’ve ever walked through in my entire life.”
He added: “So many of you have reached out to me, so many family members, so many friends on the Tour have just supported me so well through this that it’s helping give me peace.
"The friends and the people that are carrying the burden with me, that are crying with me, that are praying with me, they really are helping.”
The video also features a caption asking viewers to “please pray for Joel.”
Clearly, Scott has the support of the PGA Tour community during a difficult time for his family, as shown by the yellow ribbons many players and caddies are wearing in honor of Joel at the event.
