Nagging Neck Injury Doesn't Derail Scottie Scheffler as He Arrives in Harbour Town
Scheffler managed the injury on Masters Sunday, but he rolls into this week's RBC Heritage feeling good, with a baby on the way and a fresh green jacket.
Ludvig Aberg, Max Homa, Collin Morikawa and Bryson DeChambeau couldn’t stop him. Nor could the impending birth of Scottie and Merideth Scheffler’s first child.
But that bothersome neck turned out to be a bigger problem in Scheffler’s run to a Masters victory on Sunday than he had hoped.
Scheffler said Wednesday at Harbour Town Golf Club that it was concerning on Sunday morning and led to a harried warm-up before the final round at Augusta National.
“I think it was something similar that happened to me at Sawgrass,’’ Scheffler said after playing in the pro-am in advance of this week’s RBC Heritage.” Fortunately or unfortunately on Sunday morning my neck did start to bother me a little bit. The same little joint bugged me a touch, but fortunately we were able to get ahead of it this time before it completely locked up on me.’’
Scheffler had issues during the Players Championship last month that saw the need for a physical therapist to attend to him during the second round.
His caddie, Ted Scott, said after Scheffler went on to win the Players that he was concerned the golfer would withdraw prior to the weekend.
Despite winning his second straight event, Scheffler was not as proficient, Scott said, because of the neck problems.
It never seemed to be that big of an issue Sunday, although he did have a couple of shaky moments early on.
“So as far as how I felt Sunday, my warmup was very stressful because when the joint starts to lock up, everything around it also tightens, and so it happens very quickly,’’ Scheffler said. “I was sitting on the couch at home relaxing, and then all of a sudden I could feel it, so I got in the shower as quick as I could, got ready and went straight to my trainer and we started working on it pretty quickly, but it definitely was not anywhere near my normal warm-up.
“I was out late for my warm-up. I had to go back in and get taped back up to go back out and play, so the warm-up was a bit stressful, but I feel like my heart rate went down as we were approaching the tee time.’’
Scheffler withstood the early moves by Aberg, Morikawa and Homa, shooting a final round that saw him beat Aberg by four shots and everyone else by at least seven.
It was a dominating performance by the Official World Golf Ranking’s No. 1 player, who now has two Masters in the past three years, and has won three of his last four starts and nine times since the beginning of 2022.
As for plans for the green jacket this time, Scheffler said he will be home a bit more after this week and will see how he can show it to others.
“I think right now the way I feel is I want to wear it around the house more,’’ Scheffler said. “But as far as stuff to do with it, I think I'll probably do something similar. I think I liked going to some of the sporting events in Dallas. The Rangers won the World Series last year, the Mavs are playing some good basketball, Stars are heading into the Playoffs, as well, so I'd like to go to some more games.
“I'll be home for a few weeks now. Obviously things will be a little bit different with Meredith expecting pretty soon. We'll see, but hopefully go to a few more sporting events.’’
