The weird golf substitute starring in Scottie Scheffler’s damage restoration

It has been an uncommon golf offseason for Scottie Scheffler.

Contemporary off one of the best professional golf season of the final 25 years, Scheffler has loved an prolonged winter trip. An unplanned winter trip. And one of many longest stretches of his life with out golf.

Damaged glass is responsible for Scheffler’s absence. Particularly, damaged glass inside Scheffler’s proper hand, which ultimately required surgical procedure to be eliminated. Scottie says he suffered the damage making Ravioli together with his household on Christmas. Now it’s January twentieth and he hasn’t performed golf since, which has led to some … uncommon types of staying sharp.

In a media availability as reigning champ of the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Monday, Scheffler detailed his restoration from surgical procedure, together with the psychological coaching he has undergone to maintain his sport tournament-ready whereas his golf equipment have remained within the security of the storage.

“I’ve by no means been huge on reflecting and stuff like that,” Scheffler stated. “However as I’ve been sitting round post-surgery, I did take a little bit little bit of time to return and watch some stuff from the final 12 months, largely simply to assist jog my reminiscence.”

Scheffler’s damage raises a wierd set of questions for the two-time Masters champ. Sometimes the offseason is the time for professionals to work on enhancements for the 12 months forward. Earlier than the damage, Scheffler gave the impression to be on the point of one other important enhancement, debuting a claw grip in a ultimate 2024 victory on the Hero World Problem. However together with his damage preserving him from doing a lot observe in ’25, Scheffler seems to be within the reverse camp — making an attempt his finest to keep the shape that delivered him essentially the most profitable particular person season in PGA Tour historical past in 2024.

“I sometimes have a fairly quick reminiscence with stuff,” Scheffler stated. “So I went again whereas I used to be sitting round elevating my hand post-surgery, I used to be simply sitting there. I watched some outdated photographs, I watched some outdated tournaments, and I mirrored a little bit bit, not a lot.”

“I simply actually needed to jog my reminiscence,” he stated. “And since I wasn’t in a position to play golf, I attempted to nearly practice a little bit bit at residence the place I used to be reminding my mind of what I used to be feeling over sure photographs and the way my palms felt on the membership and stuff like that. So I wasn’t, you realize, completely trying out from golf, if that is sensible.”

Fortunately, Scheffler wasn’t diminished to sofa potato standing for too lengthy. Medical doctors gave him a 3-4 week restoration post-surgery round Christmas, and the calendar is rushing towards February. Over the weekend, video surfaced on social media displaying the World No. 1 again within the health club alongside his coach and sporting a protecting brace over his injured proper hand.

Scheffler says he’s hopeful to return to aggressive golf on the AT&T Pebble Seashore Professional-Am on the finish of the month. However he admits he’s but to make a ultimate choice.

“I’m positively anxious to get again, excited to get again,” Scheffler stated. “However I’m additionally not going to hurry again simply to hurry again.”

Scheffler is making an attempt to string a tough needle. The competitor in him is dying to play, however his intuition for self-preservation is crying out to make sure he’s wholesome earlier than returning to a full-time enjoying schedule. No quantity of movie research will account for a swing that’s simply barely out of sync, particularly given the usual of play he’s displayed during the last 18 months.

The blessing of getting performed the final a number of years at Scottie Scheffler’s degree of play is that sustaining his degree of play needs to be sufficient to maintain him firmly in rivalry most weeks. The curse is that sustaining that commonplace of play is tough, particularly while you’ve been on the sidelines for the higher a part of the final two months.

The excellent news is that Scheffler is uniquely outfitted to know if he’s reaching that commonplace of play. He’s been looking at it up shut for the final month.