스콧티 셸플러의 캐디 테드 스콧은 셸플러와 물 배구(water volleyball)를 한 적이 있다. 그 경기는 셸플러가 친구와 거의 싸움이 날 뻔한 것으로 끝났다.
"이건 내가 해본 배구와는 완전히 다른 수준이었다"고 스콧은 말했다. 배구든, 농구든, 모노폴리든, 프로 골프든 상관없다. 셸플러는 항상 '너를 이기려고' 한다.
01경쟁심이 셸플러를 만든다
"그게 그를 유명하게 만들고, 그게 그를 그렇게 좋게 만든다"고 스콧은 설명했다. "트로피나 명성을 위한 게 아니라, 정말 단순하게 모든 것에서 경쟁하기를 좋아한다. 그저 우연히 골프도 엄청 잘할 뿐이다."
2026년 셸플러는 매이저 챔피언십을 우승하지 못했고 시즌 초 높은 기대치를 모두 충족하지 못했다. 하지만 이 시즌은 그의 '경쟁심(competitive fire)'이 진정한 자산임을 입증한 해로 기억될 것이다.
02끈기 있는 마지막 한 달
메이저 챔피언십 시즌이 로열 버크데일의 The Open으로 끝나자, 대부분의 톱 선수들은 집으로 향했다. 셸플러는 미네소타 블레인의 3M Open으로 향했다. 증명할 것도, 필요한 것도 없었지만 약속을 지켰다.
스콧은 셸플러가 "피 속에 가장 거세한 열정(feistiest vinegar in his blood)"으로 그 대회에 나타났다고 전했다. 21세의 신성 Jackson Koivun에게만 졌고, 그 선수가 셸플러를 이기기 위해 완벽하게 경기해야 했다.
1주일 후 Memphis에서의 FedEx St. Jude Championship에서는 2타 선두에서 시작해 8타 우승으로 마무리했다. TOUR Championship에서는 제약도, 걱정도 없이 도달했다.
03질병에도 불구하고
BMW Championship 직전 월요일, 셸플러는 손발 입병(hand, foot and mouth disease)에 걸렸다. 물집 때문에 클럽을 잡을 수 없었다. 의사들은 불출전을 권고했다.
"난 절대 중도 포기하는 타입이 아니다"고 셸플러는 말했다. 스콧은 "의사가 '중단하라'고 했는데 셸플러는 '난 중단 안 한다'고 했다. 그게 그 사람이다"라고 회상했다.
셸플러는 마지막 3라운드에서 65-68-68을 쏘며 12위에 올랐다. "더 똑똑했으면 포기했을 것 같다"고 셸플러는 인정했다. "하지만 그게 내 고집의 일부다. 그게 강점일 수도, 약점일 수도 있다."
042회 FedExCup, 그리고 역사
TOUR Championship에서 셸플러는 3타 선두에서 뒤지는 상황에서 시작했다. 48분 만에 동점으로 따라잡았다. Viktor Hovland와 리드를 주고받다가 Hovland가 13번 홀에서 보기하며 밀렸고, 셸플러는 16번에서 버디를 넣고 편안하게 우승을 마감했다.
이로써 셸플러는 Woods와 Rory McIlroy에 이어 역사적으로 3번째 복수 FedExCup 우승자가 됐다. 30세의 나이에 올타임 머니 리스트 1위에도 올랐다. 22번의 커리어 우승 중 모든 것이 지난 5년 안에 일어났다.
"난 토너먼트를 쉬지 않는다. 토너먼트 중 하루를 쉬지 않는다. 매일 최선을 다한다"고 셸플러는 말했다. "PGA Tour에서 경기할 수 있다는 건 선물이고, 당연하게 여기고 싶지 않다. 경력이 끝날 때 후회하고 싶지 않다."
05Original (English) — PGA TOUR
ATLANTA – Ted Scott has played water volleyball with Scottie Scheffler before. It ended with Scott watching Scheffler nearly fistfight a friend.
"I was like, 'Man, this is crazy.' This is a different level of volleyball than I've played," Scott said.
In truth, it doesn't matter what it is. Whether it's water volleyball, basketball, Monopoly or professional golf, Scheffler is on a different level. He's trying to crush you.
"That's what he loves. That's what makes him so good," Scott added. "He's not about the trophies, the fame; he really just honestly loves to compete at anything. He just happens to be incredible at golf. The perfect storm."
Scheffler's 2026 season won't be remembered as the best of his career. He didn't win a major championship nor meet the sky-high expectations he began the year with. Instead, it will be remembered as the year that his competitive fire crystallized as his defining trait.
Sure, the ball-striking is immaculate, the best since Tiger Woods. Scheffler's putting is now among the most lethal on the PGA TOUR, too. But his relentless drive to persist, no matter the prestige of the event, how many weeks he played in a row or how his swing feels, stands the tallest. He will battle, and more often than not, he will win.
Scheffler's season began the way it ended, with a victory. He emerged from a historically bunched leaderboard at the TOUR Championship and fired the round of the day, a 4-under 66 that was good enough to win by three strokes. It was a rosy bookend to a season Scheffler described as "a battle." For almost any other player, it would be a career year.
"I hold myself to a high standard," Scheffler said.
It marked Scheffler's third win of the season and second in 14 days. It's his 22nd career win, all of which have come in the last five years. He's now the third player to win multiple FedExCups, joining Woods and Rory McIlroy. He's also, at age 30, the new leader in the all-time money list.
Those accolades help tell the high-level story of a generational player who still has (presumably) many more peak years. But it does a poor job of reflecting the day-by-day difference that creates that long-term separation. The monotony of routine that Scheffler attacks with vigor. To do that, you only have to look back at the last month or so.
As major championship season ended with The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, most of the top players boarded planes headed home, ready to rest and recover. Scheffler went to Blaine, Minnesota, for the 3M Open.
There was nothing to prove there, but Scheffler had committed to play the event that had long courted him, and he intended to honor that promise. It would have been understandable if Scheffler just went through the motions while there. That's not what Scott saw.
"This guy showed up at the 3M with the feistiest vinegar in his blood," Scott said.
It ended as one of his five runners-up of the year, losing to 21-year-old phenom Jackson Koivun, who needed to play out of his mind to beat Scheffler.
It sounds simple to say that any time a pro turns up at a tournament, they are giving it their all to win. It's also a fairy tale. It's not true, even for the greats. McIlroy admitted as much earlier this week.
"I've turned up to events that I haven't necessarily wanted to be there because I feel like I should be there," McIlroy said. "Like if I'm going to show up to a tournament, I want to perform at my best and play my best, and there's been times when I haven't done that."
Particularly when you reach the stage of your career as Scheffler and McIlroy, only a handful of tournaments each year will change your legacy. It's at the majors, THE PLAYERS Championship and a few of the other iconic venues on the PGA TOUR. Anything else just becomes part of a counting stat.
Scheffler isn't in it for the stats. He's in it for the juice, and there's adrenaline to be found any place where a group of golfers are putting tees in the ground and counting up the score.
The world No. 1 arrived in Memphis for the FedEx St. Jude Championship without many of the concerns his counterparts on the range were feeling. He was assured of his spot at the TOUR Championship months before. More than half of that 68-man field needed two big weeks to assure a tee time at East Lake. That didn't hinder his drive.
Scheffler began Sunday with a two-stroke lead. He ended it with an eight-stroke win, the largest of the season. He was firing at pins, content to run it up as big as he could.
A week later, he played the BMW Championship against doctors' wishes. That Monday before the tournament began, he came down with hand, foot and mouth disease. He had blisters that made it difficult to swallow and impossible to grip a club without pain. He shot 2-over 72 to fall well back of the pack. His doctors advised him to withdraw.
"I've never been one to try and quit," Scheffler said.
"The doctor said, 'You should quit,' and I said, 'He ain't quitting,'" Scott recalled. "It's just not who he is."
Scheffler fired rounds of 65-68-68 across the last three days and still finished in a tie for 12th.
"If I was smarter, maybe I would have pulled out," Scheffler admitted. "But I think that's part of my stubbornness, probably. That's probably a strength of mine and a weakness at times."
That stubbornness kept him gnawing on something about East Lake. When he won the FedExCup in 2024, it was during the era of Starting Strokes. Scheffler began that week at No. 1, starting the tournament with a lead at 10 under. That advantage helped him create a five-stroke advantage over Collin Morikawa with four holes to play on Sunday. With that lead in hand, Scheffler simply steered it in and won by four. Yet the difference of that stroke meant that Morikawa would have beaten him without Starting Strokes. And suddenly Scheffler heard a chorus of "he didn't win, but he won."
"It still bugs me a little bit that it's like, well, it's the first time you had the lowest score," Scheffler said. "And it's like, well, it's kind of apples and oranges."
There was no ambiguity this week. Scheffler trailed by three strokes to start the day, but within 48 minutes of hitting his first tee shot, he was tied. Scheffler made two early birdies, including a near ace at the par-3 second, while 54-hole leader Viktor Hovland stumbled.
Hovland and Scheffler traded the lead back and forth on the front nine and early on the back nine. That's when Hovland blinked, bogeying the par-4 13th to lose touch with the lead. He never got it back. Scheffler birdied the 16th to stretch his lead to two, and when Hovland bogeyed the 17th, Scheffler played for par at the par-5 18th and a comfortable win.
"I don't take tournaments off. I don't take days off during tournaments. I try to give it my all each and every day. I feel like it's a gift to play out here on the PGA TOUR and don't want to take it for granted," Scheffler said. "I don't want to look back at the end of my career and feel like I could have done more in order to play well. I want to be able to tell myself when I hang it up that I did everything I could. I feel like years like this kind of show that to myself, how important that is."
Scheffler's year ended fittingly. He had already won more FedExCup points and money than any other player. He was the frontrunner for Player of the Year and the runaway world No. 1. He had already won this trophy before, too.
Scheffler won it again anyway. He knows no other way.
