This week’s Hero World Challenge is not an official PGA Tour event and features a small field of 20 players. As a result, things are a little less serious in the Bahamas compared to a regular-season tournament. Scottie Scheffler’s demeanor in his pre-tournament press conference is evidence of that.
While Scheffler has a reputation as an elite trash-talker on the course with a great sense of humor, his responses in tournament press conferences are usually all business.
But when the questions posed to him Wednesday got heavier than is typical for the Hero’s laidback atmosphere, the World No. 1 decided to have a little fun with the reporters in the press room.
Scottie Scheffler dropped a 67 on Thursday at the Hero World Challenge, but only after dropping some jokes on Wednesday.
Early in the presser, Scheffler had been repeatedly asked about the role of money in golf, in relation to both the massively increased purses in recent years and the debate over Ryder Cup player pay.
So when a reporter asked Scheffler what he and tournament host Tiger Woods chatted about when Woods visited Scheffler’s group during their Tuesday practice round at Albany, Scheffler took the opportunity to lighten the mood, albeit with a deadpan delivery.
“I think most of the time we just talk about money and how the purses need to be bigger,” Scheffler replied with a straight face. “Today we really grinded on the Ryder Cup and how it’s just such BS that we’ve never gotten paid. Tiger was really frustrated, he feels like he hasn’t made enough money in his career.”
As Scheffler’s response drew laughter from the media, a wry smile broke across his face. But he wasn’t quite done.
“I feel the same way [as Tiger] — I feel like last year I didn’t get paid enough for what I did,” Scheffler joked. “Mostly that, just a bunch of griping.”
For the record, Scheffler earned a whopping $62 million on the course this year between his tournament winnings and FedEx Cup bonus.
When the jokes were through, Scheffler took a moment to relate what he and Tiger actually talked about on Tuesday: putting and Tiger’s kids.
“Sometimes I like to pick Tiger’s brain, he’s a great guy to be able to bounce stuff off of. Today he’s walking around with his putter so started talking about putting a little bit,” Scheffler said. “Talked about his kids. It’s really exciting, when you ask somebody about their kids, they always get so excited and that’s really fun for me to be able to do with people because they get so excited and it’s fun to share what’s going on. Tiger’s the same way, he always gets excited when he gets to talk about his kids.”
As for Ryder Cup pay, Scheffler did share some honest thoughts on that subject, too, explaining that golf has never been about the money for him.
“As far as I’m concerned, I don’t play golf for money. I’ve been playing golf my whole life for free and the money’s just a bonus. If somebody wants to pay us to come out here and play golf, that’s great, I’m not going to say no to it. I’m going to do the best I can in my community to steward that money well.”
He also claimed that despite all the controversy and acrimony around Ryder Cup players getting paid, Scheffler is confident that if forced to, every U.S. player would pay for the opportunity to compete in the biennial event.
“I think every one of our players would pay to play in the Ryder Cup if that’s what was asked of us,” Scheffler said. “I think it’s a little bit silly for a tournament that makes hundreds of millions of dollars to ask for the players to pay as well, but I think we all would. I definitely would.”
Scheffler, who won seven times in the 2024 season, isn’t about to take it easy in this unofficial offseason event. He opened the tournament with a five-under 67 on Thursday to get into contention for the very real $1 million winner’s prize.
