Scottie Scheffler has been dominant in the United States the last few seasons, and while there were questions about whether his reign atop the sport would continue early in 2025 due to an odd offseason injury, those concerns have slowly faded away. But that’s golf in the United States. What about golf across the pond?
With the PGA Tour season making its move over the Atlantic Ocean for a two-week stretch, Scheffler looks to accomplish a rare first in a career already filled with so many accolades. He is seeking a links golf victory, whether that is this week during the 2025 Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club or next week during the 2025 Open Championship Royal Portrush. Scheffler enters as better than a 4-1 favorite to win each tournament, per FanDuel.
“There’s definitely a certain aspect of getting preparation for next week but definitely am not looking at next week,” Scheffler said. “This is an important tournament for me, and this is a tournament I want to play well in. And if I wanted to just do preparation, I would have gone and played some other golf courses for fun. There’s other ways to get prep than coming over and playing tournament golf. It was important for me to get over here.
“Tournament golf is a little bit different than just playing for fun — being here in the right conditions and in the wind and getting used to the time and stuff like that. But by no means am I showing up at this tournament to prepare for this week. It’s a tournament that’s important for me and a tournament I’d like to play well in.”
Despite a lack of links trophies, Scheffler has acquitted himself nicely in this setting since making his debut in 2021. The world No. 1’s original debut at The Open was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but he made up for lost time in assimilating himself to links golf the next year with a T12 at the Scottish Open and T8 at Royal St. George’s the following week.
Take away a missed cut at the 2022 Scottish Open, and for Scheffler it has been business as usual in seven appearances — high-achieving finishes inside the top 25 mixed in with close calls like his T3 at the 2023 Scottish Open and T7 at last year’s Open.
“I think my attitude has always been the same. It’s a lot of fun for me to be able to come over and play these courses,” Scheffler said. “It’s a different style of golf, and it’s really fun for me because you get to be more creative. A lot of times you’re forced into being more creative, especially when you get a lot of wind around these courses and you have to play a lot more shots than you normally would and that’s just based off the conditions.
“When you’re playing links without much wind, there’s a little bit of creativity, but you play a lot of what I would call standard shots. But when you get 15, 20 mile-an-hour wind coming off the water, you have to change the way you do things, especially when you’re dealing with elevation changes like you do on this golf course.”
Scheffler arrives in Scotland on the cusp of spending 150 weeks at world No. 1 with his form as quality as ever. He hasn’t finished outside the top 10 since The Players Championship in March and has since rattled off three victories, including the PGA Championship.
The résumé seems to add a new line entry every time he tees it up with this week’s Scottish Open representing a real chance add the latest — albeit one which he has never accomplished before.