PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Scottie Scheffler was making an attempt to make do-it-yourself ravioli on Christmas Day — with restricted tools in a rental dwelling — when he realized he’d made a critical mistake. He determined to make use of an empty wine glass to form and slice his pasta dough.
“I had my hand on high of it and it broke, which, facet be aware, I’ve heard nothing however horror tales since this occurred about wine glasses, so watch out,” Scheffler mentioned Tuesday. “Even in the event you’re like me and also you don’t drink wine, you’ve received to be actual cautious with wine glasses.”
The stem of a wine glass stabbed Scheffler within the higher palm of his proper hand. That’s the crux of the incident that led to a surgical process and took the 2024 PGA Tour Participant of the 12 months out of his first two tournaments of the season, The Sentry in Maui and the American Categorical in Palm Springs.
The No. 1 participant on the planet is making his first match begin of 2025 this week on the Pebble Seashore Professional-Am, which begins on Thursday. It comes after a two-week lengthy hiatus from golf and bodily exercise, in addition to a gentle strategy of easing again into coaching and enjoying. That interval was irritating for a participant who thrives in competitors. Scheffler doesn’t like to take a seat again and watch.
“It’s a type of offers the place instantly after it occurred, I used to be mad at myself as a result of I used to be like gosh, that’s so silly, however you simply don’t give it some thought while you’re within the second,” he continued. “Yeah, positively been a bit of extra cautious doing stuff at dwelling.”
Instantly after the incident, a good friend of Scheffler’s who occurs to be a surgeon got here to the rescue and helped cease the bleeding. The subsequent day rolled round and the wound was not open, however the ache remained, and Scheffler felt a normal lack of vary of movement. He determined to achieve out to a hand physician he’d labored with on a thumb harm whereas in school. They opted for surgical procedure. Scheffler mentioned that he doesn’t anticipate his proper hand to incur any long-term injury.
Scheffler spent his restoration time reflecting and analyzing an historic season that included seven wins on the PGA Tour — probably the most since Tiger Woods received seven in 2007 — plus an Olympic gold medal and the Hero World Problem. He re-watched movie of his match rounds and took his thoughts again to these cruise-control moments in competitors, being attentive to each his swing positions and demeanor.
“There’s just a few tournaments I regarded again at the place the factor that caught out probably the most was that I by no means actually overreacted to stuff, I form of stayed in it and form of waited for my second to get sizzling,” Scheffler mentioned.
Required studying
(Picture: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Photos for The Showdown)
