Scottie Scheffler played through pain most of us would have used as an excuse to sit out. The world number one just admitted exactly how bad it got during the BMW Championship, and why he refused to walk away from it.The reigning FedEx St Jude champion finished tied for 12th at Bellerive this past weekend, seven under par, a result that would read as ordinary for most golfers but landed as a mild disappointment given the form he’d shown just days earlier. Turns out there was a reason his game looked slightly off.
What happened to Scottie Scheffler?
Scheffler got sick on Monday night heading into tournament week, and it wasn’t a minor bug. He was diagnosed with hand, foot and mouth disease, an illness that typically shows up in young children and brings blisters to the hands, throat and feet. For a professional golfer, that combination is close to a nightmare. Grip pressure is everything in this sport, and Scheffler’s hands were covered in sores.“I got the hand, foot, mouth. So you’ve got blisters on your hands, and in your throat, and on your feet. So, to start the week, it was pretty painful to grip the club,” he said, describing the early rounds of the week.“If I was smarter, maybe I would have pulled out. But I was playing so good, I felt like if I could knock it out quickly, and just get through the first couple rounds, I’d still have a chance. But I think that’s part of my stubbornness, probably,” he added.He conceded afterward that pulling out probably would have been the smarter move. His preparation suffered too. Rest became the priority over practice, workouts and his usual pre-round warmup routine, all of which he had to scale back just to get through four rounds.
Scheffler’s stubborn call to keep playing
Ask anyone close to Scheffler and they’ll tell you quitting mid-tournament simply isn’t in his nature, and he confirmed as much himself. He called it a mix of strength and weakness, the same trait that’s carried him to twenty-one PGA Tour wins but also the reason he pushed through a week he probably shouldn’t have played at all.Scheffler went on to add, “That’s probably a strength of mine, and a weakness at times. I’ve never been one to pull out of a tournament; especially in the middle of it, that’s really frustrating for me.“And so I definitely didn’t want to do that going into this week, even though it was suggested.”By the weekend, adrenaline had started to mask some of the discomfort once he got onto the course. His throat was still bothering him more than his hands by the end of the tournament, but he described feeling like he was on the mend. The BMW Championship itself went to Wyndham Clark, who held off a late charge from Rory McIlroy to win by three shots, with McIlroy settling for third behind Patrick Cantlay.
What’s next for Scheffler at the Tour Championship
Hand, foot and mouth disease usually runs its course within seven to ten days without needing treatment, which puts Scheffler close to fully clear as the Tour Championship arrives at East Lake. He’s chasing a second FedExCup title there, and his focus this week has shifted from grinding through practice reps to simply getting his body right.Coming off a dominant eight-shot win at the FedEx St Jude Championship just a week before he fell ill, Scheffler has already shown the form is there. The question now is whether his health cooperates long enough for him to finish the season the way he started this stretch of it.
