Scottie Scheffler accused of 's*** talking' after The Open as rival reveals true character
Jordan Spieth has opened up about Scottie Scheffler's antics away from the high-pressure environment of professional golf. Scheffler won The Open for the first time on Sunday after a thoroughly impressive week at Royal Portrush.
It is the fourth major win of Scheffler's career, adding to his two Masters titles and recent PGA Championship victory. Scheffler has been ranked world No.1 since March 2022 and is known for his clinical approach on the course.
Three-time major winner Spieth has known Scheffler since their junior golf days and both are University of Texas alumni. Despite the new Open champion's reputation as a serious golfer, Spieth revealed that Scheffler loves to get into the heads of his friends when practising away from the cameras.
"Well, he has that unique ability to, from best I can tell, to separate," adding, "But again, when I see him, I'm at the golf course. I see him here and there off the course, but when we're playing on the course at home, he s*** talks.
"He's very witty. You can't really go at him because he's smart, and he's got good bull****." However, Spieth kept the specifics of Scheffler's banter under wraps.
"I mean, it's not necessarily just to me. It's normally the other people that we're playing with. But yeah, not that I want to say it -- I'm not going to quote him on that kind of stuff. But then when a tournament starts, he's incredibly competitive, as you see.
"But it also - he's kind of plotting along. You won't see that much emotion as he continues to strike it like this because the only time you're going to see it is when he's on the greens if he misses putts because he's not missing many shots."
Scheffler's impressive performance at The Open, finishing 17-under-par and leaving his closest competitor trailing by four shots at Portrush, has sparked comparisons to Tiger Woods. Yet Spieth shed light on how Scheffler differs from the 15-time major winner.
"I think more so, maybe it's less the golf swing and maybe more of his personality. He doesn't care to be a superstar," Spieth said. "He's not transcending the game like Tiger did.
"He's not bringing it to a non-golf audience necessarily. He doesn't want to go do the stuff that a lot of us go do, corporately, anything like that.
"He just wants to get away from the game and separate the two because I know that he -- at one time, he felt it was too much, that he was taking it with him, and whenever he made that switch, I don't know what it was, but he has hobbies. He's always with his family. They're always doing stuff.
"I think it's more so the difference in personality from any other superstar that you've seen in the modern era and maybe in any sport. I don't think anybody is like him."
Spieth compared Scheffler to NBA sensation Nikola Jokic, citing their similar perspectives on shunning the spotlight. However, when tennis legend Roger Federer was mentioned as another suggestion, Spieth highlighted a distinct difference: "When Scottie is done playing, he's not going to show back up at tournaments. I can promise you that."
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Scheffler hit back after McIlroy's wife jibe Scheffler had a witty response to McIlroy's comments over a hand injury that kept Scheffler out of action at the turn of the year. The 29-year-old cut himself on a broken wine glass while cooking ravioli on Christmas Day and missed the opening two events of the PGA Tour. McIlroy queried: "Like, why are you cooking yourself? I was hoping it was going to be more of a fun story than that. It's good that he's tearing it up this week, but yeah, get a chef." Never to let McIlroy have the last word, Scheffler later hit back: "I got a chef. Her name is Meredith [Scheffler's wife]. She's pretty cute." However, word on whether Meredith found the jibe funny isn't clear.
