In a year like no other, one golfer has proven himself truly exceptional in his profession.
Texas alumnus Scottie Scheffler has dominated the PGA Tour and continues to establish himself as the best golfer in the world. With the Paris Olympics quickly approaching, Scheffler will once again have an opportunity to demonstrate his mastery, this time not only representing himself, but his country as well.
Scheffler maintains his No. 1 world ranking, a position he has held for 94 weeks according to golfrankingstats.com. The Texas alumnus has earned nearly $28 million in prize money this year alone, a PGA Tour record.
Now that he is traveling to Paris, he will look to add yet another prize to his already overflowing trophy case: a gold medal.
This season has been a rollercoaster for Scheffler. In 15 events played, Scheffler claimed victory in six of them, only three wins away from the PGA single-season record. He finished runner-up twice and placed in the top 10 in 13 total events. It was also this past season that Scheffler took home his second major of his career, the 2024 Masters.
Scheffler’s participation in Paris will be his first Olympic appearance and his first opportunity for a gold medal.
Other than Scheffler, the U.S. men’s golf team is composed of Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa. Clark will be making his Olympic debut with Scheffler, but Schauffele and Morikawa previously competed in the 2020 games in Tokyo. Schauffele makes his return as the defending gold medalist for Team USA.
The field for the Olympics is composed of 60 golfers from 32 different countries. Familiar faces competing this year include Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm and Ludvig Aberg, all currently top ten players in the world. Golfers will individually compete against each other as they would for any standard tournament, through stroke play.
“I think with the format of it it’s more of an individual tournament because there’s no real team aspect,” Scheffler said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. “But as far as going over there and playing, I would approach it the same way I would a tournament here.”
Though this is Scheffler’s first time competing in the Olympics, it will not be his first time representing Team USA.
In 2023, Scheffler took his spot on the U.S. team for the Ryder Cup. In the tournament, Scheffler and the U.S. lost to their European counterparts.
Scheffler now has a second opportunity in as many years to represent his country and help the U.S. bring home their second consecutive Olympic gold.
“Playing for your country is always extremely exciting and it will be pretty surreal doing it on the Olympic stage,” Scheffler said in an interview with Team USA.
The match will take place at the Albatros course at Le Golf National, a course located just outside of Paris, starting on Aug. 1 and ending on Aug. 4. Having one of the best seasons in recent memory, Scheffler has the opportunity to maintain his trajectory for success and once again claim victory on the world stage.
