Scottie Scheffler has become an extremely accomplished golfer, which pleases him, but does not completely satisfy him.
Scheffler spoke with the media from Royal Portrush ahead of this week’s Open Championship in Northern Ireland and got deep about his feelings. Scheffler has proven himself to be the No. 1 player in the world by a wide margin. He has won three majors since 2024 and has been the PGA Tour Player of the Year three years in a row.
Despite all of his success and accolades, Scheffler said it’s not the winning that satisfies him as a person. Although he enjoys and appreciates his golf success, Scheffler said that he finds true satisfaction and meaning from his role as a husband and father.
You can see a video of his comments:
Scottie Scheffler just gave one of the best (and deepest) press conference answers ever heard. pic.twitter.com/SUIRKuLwgb
— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) July 15, 2025
If you prefer reading his comments, you can read them in full.
“I think it’s kind of funny. I think I said something after the Byron (Nelson Championship) this year about like it feels like you work your whole life to celebrate winning a tournament for like a few minutes. It only lasts a few minutes, that kind of euphoric feeling. To win the Byron Nelson Championship at home, I literally worked my entire life to become good at golf to have an opportunity to win that tournament. And you win it, you celebrate, you get to hug my family, my sister’s there, it’s such an amazing moment. And then it’s like, ‘okay, now what are we going to eat for dinner?’ Life goes on,” Scheffler said.
“Is it great to be able to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have in the game of golf? Yeah. It brings tears to my eyes just to think about because I’ve literally worked my entire life to be good at this sport. To have that kind of sense of accomplishment, I think, is a pretty cool feeling. To get to live out your dreams is very special. But at the end of the day, I’m not out here to inspire the next generation of golfers. I’m not out here to inspire somebody else to be the best player in the world, because what’s the point? This is not a fulfilling life. It’s fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it’s not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart.
“There’s a lot of people that make it to what they thought was going to fulfill them in life, and then you get there, you get to No. 1 in the world, and then they’re like what’s the point? I really do believe that, because what is the point? Why do I want to win this tournament so bad? That’s something that I wrestle with on a daily basis. It’s like showing up at the Masters every year. It’s like why do I want to win this golf tournament so badly? Why do I want to win The Open Championship so badly? I don’t know because, if I win, it’s going to be awesome for about two minutes. And then we’re going to get to the next week, and it’s going to be like, ‘hey, you won two majors this year, how important is it for you to win the FedExCup playoffs?’ And it’s just like we’re back here again.
“So we really do. We work so hard for such little moments. I’m kind of sicko. I love putting in the work. I love being able to practice. I love getting to live out my dreams. But at the end of the day, sometimes I just don’t understand the point.
“I don’t know if I’m making any sense or not. Am I not? It’s just one of those deals. I love the challenge. I love being able to play this game for a living. It’s one of the greatest joys of my life, but does it fill the deepest wants and desires of my heart? Absolutely not.”
Scheffler doesn’t want anything he said about his feelings to obscure the fact that he loves playing golf and living out his dreams.
“I love playing golf. I love being able to compete. I love living out my dreams. I love being a father. I love being able to take care of my son. I love being able to provide for my family out here playing golf.
“Every day when I wake up early to go put in the work, my wife thanks me for going out and working so hard. When I get home, I try and thank her every day for taking care of our son. That’s why I talk about family being my priority because it really is.
“I’m blessed to be able to come out here and play golf, but if my golf ever started affecting my home life or it ever affected the relationship I have with my wife or my son, that’s going to be the last day that I play out here for a living. This is not the be all, end all. This is not the most important thing in my life. That’s why I wrestle with, ‘why is this so important to me?’ Because I’d much rather be a great father than I would be a great golfer. At the end of the day, that’s what’s more important to me.”
And how is losing for Scheffler?
“It sucks. I hate it. I really do.
“That is, and I think that’s why we try to work so hard to not lose, but golf’s a game where you just lose a lot more often than you win. That’s just a simple part of it. In basketball or football, when there’s only two guys out there, you can win a lot more than you lose. I think I was looking at stats — it was one of the best tennis players. It might have been (Roger) Federer or (Novak) Djokovic or somebody. They only won like 48 percent of their points or something like that. Playing professional sports is a really weird thing to do. It really is. Just because we put in so much effort. We work so hard for something that’s so fleeting. It really is. The feeling of winning just doesn’t last that long.
“When I sit back at the end of the year and try to reflect on things, like having that sense of accomplishment from winning the Masters tournament, from winning the PGA Championship, I have a deep sense of gratitude and appreciation for it. But it’s just hard to explain how it doesn’t—it just doesn’t satisfy is how I would describe it. It’s an unsatisfying venture.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is this is not the place to look for your satisfaction. This is something where you can have a great appreciation for and a great — like a great amount of thankfulness for being able to do this. Like I said, it’s literally one of the most fun things I can do in my entire life. I love being able to come out here and compete, but at the end of the day, it’s just not what satisfies me.”
Scheffler has had 19 professional golf wins since 2022. He’s done plenty of winning, which is why he has so much experience with how he feels after his victories. There are probably several other high-level athletes who can relate to how he feels. Then there are thousands of golfers who wish they could feel that way.
