Scottie Scheffler learned golf curving ping-pong balls between rooms at home
Given plastic clubs at three, Scottie Scheffler practised by bending ping-pong balls from one room of the family home into the next. His father shovelled snow off a New Jersey driving range so he could keep hitting in winter. That boy became golf's dominant player, top of the world rankings for more than 175 weeks.
Born in Ridgewood, New Jersey on 21 June 1996, he moved with his family to Dallas at six. His father, a carpenter, became a stay-at-home dad while his mother worked as a law-firm executive, and the couple borrowed 50,000 dollars to join Royal Oaks Country Club. There he learned under Randy Smith, coach of 1997 Open champion Justin Leonard, and by nine was challenging tour professionals to chipping and putting contests. He won 90 of 136 junior events in north Texas.
Barely five feet tall entering high school, he shot past six feet and won three straight Texas state titles from 2012 to 2014, matching Jordan Spieth's record. At the University of Texas he was named the top freshman in 2015. After turning professional in 2018 he had little early success, scraping into the second-tier tour through qualifying school by one shot in December 2018, a moment he later called the most important of his career.
The climb was steep. In August 2020 he shot 59 at The Northern Trust, only the 12th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history, and was named rookie of the year. In 2022 he won his first tour event in February, reached world number one in March and won the Masters in April, beating Rory McIlroy by three strokes. He took The Players Championship in 2023 and 2024, the first to win it in consecutive years.
The titles kept coming: a second Masters and Olympic gold in 2024, then the PGA Championship and Open Championship in 2025, for four majors in all. He has been PGA Tour player of the year four seasons running, and his career earnings passed 130 million dollars by 2026, the most in tour history.
Source: Scottie Scheffler
