After a disappointing showing in 2023, Scheffler is viewing the Procore Championship as a chance to get prepared for a bounce-back performance.
NAPA, Calif. – After a long year that saw him win two major championships, five PGA Tour events overall and top the FedEx Cup points list through the playoffs, Scottie Scheffler might have been excused had he wanted some time to enjoy it all.
But Scheffler was one of the players early on who bought into the idea of coming to Northern California to bridge the down time between the Tour Championship and the Ryder Cup by competing in the Procore Championship, which begins Thursday at the Silverado Resort.“We had talked about it at the beginning of the year,” Scheffler said after playing in the Procore pro-am Wednesday. “It was something that Xander and I had discussed because sometimes we do kind of a prep work trip, but Bethpage was a golf course that most of us knew pretty well. “Two years ago for Rome we did that trip over there to get ready for the golf course. Basically, the conclusion that we came to was it would be nice to have some competition going into the Ryder Cup. And it would be unusual for me to have four or five weeks off before the Masters or the U.S. Open or something like that, so there's no reason that I should be doing that going into the Ryder Cup. “I'm always focused on my preparation, that's most important to me. So in order to stay sharp—you can practice and do all you can at home, but there's something different about playing competition, getting ready for a tournament and I think this will be good prep.” Scheffler has been joined by nine of his teammates, with only Schauffele—whose wife recently gave birth—and Bryson DeChambeau, who is ineligible because he’s a member of LIV Golf, not in the field. DeChambeau attended a team dinner on Tuesday that included spouses, assistant captains and caddies as well as U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley.When he was chosen by captain Steve Stricker to be part of the 2021 team at Whistling Straits, he was generally regarded as the last man on the team. He had never won on the PGA Tour, and then went 2–0–1, including a singles victory over Jon Rahm in the U.S. win.But at the 2023 Ryder Cup, Scheffler, by then a six-time winner and clearly the best American player, had a poor performance. He went 0–2–2 in Rome and was part of a 9 and 7 loss along with Brooks Koepka to Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Åberg. The U.S. lost 16 ½ to 11 ½. “I felt like, for myself going into the last Ryder Cup, my prep work may not have been as good as it should have been,” Scheffler said. “I think I could have been a little bit sharper at that tournament. It's just because it's just different playing tournament golf, it really is. That was a learning experience for me. Like I said, I learned from it and now we'll be pretty sharp heading in.” Since the last Ryder Cup, Scheffler has added 12 PGA Tour victories , including three major titles . He also won the gold medal at the 2024 Olympics. “I think anytime you have tough losses, it can go one of two ways,” Scheffler said. “It can be something that you can use for something good or it can kind of break you down. Over time, playing professional golf, you're going to have great wins, you're going to have great losses. When I look back at the '23 Cup, I think I halved two matches and lost two, so I think I left there without winning a single match and that hurt. “Like I said, when you represent your country, you want to do your best. So putting the flag on my chest means a heck of a lot to me. There's a reason I get emotional talking about it, there's a reason I get emotional at the Olympics. I love my country and I love the opportunity to be able to represent them. It hurt a little bit because I didn't feel like I was as prepared as I could have been. So going into this Cup I've put a lot of work into my game over the last couple years to get ready and to go play this event.”Bob Harig is a senior writer covering golf for Sports Illustrated. He has more than 25 years experience on the beat, including 15 at ESPN. Harig is a regular guest on Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio and has written two books, "DRIVE: The Lasting Legacy of Tiger Woods" and "Tiger and Phil: Golf's Most Fascinating Rivalry." He graduated from Indiana University where he earned an Evans Scholarship, named in honor of the great amateur golfer Charles Evans Jr. Harig, a former president of the Golf Writers Association of America, lives in Clearwater, Fla.
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