By CNN
—
You can’t have your cake and eat it, the proverb says. Scottie Scheffler is living proof that you very much can.
The American returns to TPC Sawgrass on Thursday bidding to become the first player ever to retain golf’s unofficial “fifth major” – The Players Championship.
He could not arrive in any better form; a blistering putting display at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday saw the 27-year-old cruise to a five-stroke victory and end a one-year winless run on the PGA Tour – a relative drought for a golfer who has held an iron grip on the world No. 1 spot since last May.
His seventh PGA Tour title came almost a year to the day since his last triumph on the circuit – also by five strokes – at TPC Sawgrass. Yet somehow, the largest margin of victory seen at the event since 2006 was arguably upstaged by the most unlikely of sources – the champion’s grandmother.
At 88 years old, Mary Delorenzo followed her grandson for all 72 holes, strolling her way into internet fame – not that she or Scheffler realized.
“Grandma and I are not big on social media, so we actually only found out the other day that she went viral, whatever that must mean,” Scheffler told CNN Sport’s Don Riddell.
“Pretty amazing at her age, she was just cruising around. She probably sat down less than I would if I was out there watching golf.”
In his winner’s press conference, the victor had laid out his celebratory plans: tucking into dessert at Grandma’s house, just a 20-minute trip away from the venue.
As grandson to the “queen of desserts,” Scheffler has long been spoiled for choice, but one offering in particular trumps all others. The world No. 1 is such a fan of her chocolate cream pie that the head chef at the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse served the family his rendition of the treat earlier this month.
Scheffler approved, but nothing beats the original.
“It’s got Grandma’s touch,” he said.
“Her house is synonymous with gaining a few pounds. I keep telling her to cut me smaller pieces of the pie, but that pie just keeps getting bigger. I can’t really figure that out.”
‘I feel like I live two separate lives’
Scheffler is also keen on a very different type of pie – the humble kind.
Staying grounded might seem like a tricky challenge for the back-to-back PGA Tour Player of the Year, a player so consistent that a top-10 finish – 17 in 27 events across last season – is almost expected on any given Sunday.
It’s a stable level of excellence rarely seen since Tiger Woods was dominating the circuit in the 2000’s, yet for a golfer who only ever planned as far as making it onto the PGA Tour, avoiding a hyper-fixation on results has always come naturally.
“It was just my dream to be out here playing golf and having that be my job,” Scheffler said.
“When you sit there and start enjoying the victories too often, you forget about what got you there. That’s why I always try to stay in the present and try and get a little bit better at a time.
“In golf, it’s actually surprisingly easy because you may win one tournament one week and then you go out and play the next week and you lose. It’s not like other sports where you’re winning a bunch. Tiger didn’t, even when he won maybe 25% of his starts, and he was probably the best ever. He lost a lot more than he won.
“Golf does a good job of keeping you humble and motivated.”
Another potential roadblock to staying grounded is money, and Scheffler’s consistency has seen him accumulate plenty.
His $4 million winner’s purse at the Arnold Palmer Invitational pushed the 2022 Masters champion over the $49 million mark in PGA Tour career earnings, moving him inside the all-time top-17 in the early stages of just his fifth year on the circuit.
Yet as recently as 2022, the University of Texas alumni still drove the same Chevrolet Suburban that his father got for him when he was in college, clocking in some 175,000 miles in the car.
Quizzed on his flashiest purchase, Scheffler settles on his home in Dallas, which he shares with his wife Meredith.
“I wouldn’t really describe my house as extravagant, but that’s definitely our most expensive purchase,” he said.
“I feel like I live two separate lives. I have my life when I’m out here on the road and you’re playing golf in front of people and I’ve got to do interviews and stuff like that. But then when I go home and I go about my life, golf’s not really that crazy of a popular sport. It’s not like I’m quarterback for the [Dallas] Cowboys or anything like that.
“So living life around home is pretty easy for us. Not much has really changed on the home front. But out here, yeah, things have changed a significant amount.”
