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Open champion Scottie Scheffler warned the golfing world they might soon have another champion in the family to worry about after revealing his one-year-old son is already swinging a club.
The American was crowned Champion Golfer of the Year as he strolled to victory by four shots at Royal Portrush to lift the Claret Jug and take home the £2.3million prize money.
Scheffler bagged his fourth major title and now just needs the US Open to follow Rory McIlroy in completing the career Grand Slam.
After securing his victory, television cameras cut to Scheffler’s son Bennett swinging a plastic golf club as the champion celebrated with his family, including wife Meredith.
‘He likes it,’ said Scheffler. ‘He doesn't know what a golf ball is but he's either eating his golf club, or he's hitting something with it, whether it be a piece of furniture or sometimes other kids. We're working on it!
‘I have a nephew that's kind of obsessed with golf like I was at a young age. We were in the backyard at my sister's bachelorette party, so my brother-in-law came and stayed with me with his two kids. Hayes was back there hitting golf ball after golf ball.
Open champion Scottie Scheffler has revealed his one-year-old son is already swinging a club.
The American was crowned Champion Golfer of the Year as he strolled to victory
After securing his victory, Scheffler celebrated with his wife Meredith and son Bennett
'Bennett loves older kids, so he looked at him and he was like, hey, I want to try that. He started swinging a club back and forth. I put a golf ball down, and he hit it. To be able to occupy a one-year-old with anything is probably a pretty good thing for them to be able to focus on.
‘I hope Bennett's able to get into golf one day. The game of golf has taught me a tremendous amount. I feel like every day you go out and play golf you're looking in the mirror, and I've met some of my best friends through the game of golf. It's a very special game. You call penalties on yourself, and it's just -- you learn a lot of good life lessons by playing golf.
‘I hope he can play one day, and I hope he enjoys it as much as I do.’
Scheffler dedicated the victory to his high-school sweetheart wife Meredith, who he married in 2020 in a Winter Wonderland-themed wedding.
‘The first person I always look for is my wife,’ he added. ‘Where we walk off the green each day is usually on the right side, and I didn't see her at first. So I was like, oh, my gosh, where's Meredith? What happened? She's not there.
‘As I kind of circled around the green, I saw my dad standing there. I was like, okay, perfect, my family must be down there, so I saw Meredith. She's always the first person I want to celebrate with. She knows me better than anybody. That's my best friend. It takes a lot of work to be able to become good at this game, and I wouldn't be able to do it without her support.
‘She does a tremendous job of taking care of everything for us at home and giving me the ability to put in the amount of time and effort that I put into the game of golf because it's a lot. It's not a lifestyle that's suited for everybody. We live a different lifestyle than some of our friends at home, travelling the way we do, but we're very grateful for it.’
Scheffler never looked like letting the title slip after starting the day at the top of the leaderboard and McIlroy, who was unable to hunt him down as the Northern Irishman finished tied for seventh, believes we are seeing one of the greatest players in history.
Scheffler never looked like letting the title slip after starting the day at the top of the leaderboard
‘None of us could hang with Scottie this week,’ said McIlroy. ‘He's an incredible player. He is the bar that we're all trying to get to.
‘In a historical context, you could argue that there's only maybe two or three players in the history of the game that have been on a run, the one that Scottie's been on here for the last 24 to 36 months. Incredibly impressive.’
The comparisons between Scheffler and Tiger Woods are gathering momentum. Sunday marked 1,197 days since Scheffler’s first major, exactly the same gap between Woods’s first and fourth titles.
‘I still think they're a bit silly,’ said Scheffler. ‘Tiger won, what, 15 majors? This is my fourth. I just got a quarter of the way there. I think Tiger stands alone in the game of golf. He was inspirational for me growing up. He was a very, very talented guy, and he was a special person to be able to be as good as he was at the game of golf.’
