Scottie Scheffler’s BMW Championship will likely be remembered for a couple of incidents from the world number one where he did not even have a golf club in his hands – with the 28-year-old registering one of his worst results of the season.
It is hard to imagine that Scottie Scheffler will be counting down the days until the PGA Tour returns to Castle Pines, as he registered only his second finish outside the top 20 all year.
Scheffler completely lost his cool at one stage on Friday after misjudging one shot, and Scheffler admitted that he struggled to adapt to the conditions in Colorado. But it was not just his own game which seemed to frustrate The Masters champion.
Scheffler was paired with Matthew Fitzpatrick for the final day, with the Englishman looking to produce the kind of stunning round which would give him a chance of qualifying for The Tour Championship. Unfortunately for Fitzpatrick, his hopes were dashed after his driver face cracked during the round.
How Scottie Scheffler reacted to Matthew Fitzpatrick controversy at BMW Championship
Golf fans were furious to see that Fitzpatrick was not allowed to replace the driver. But it would appear that it was not only Fitzpatrick and the fans who were livid with the decision from the rules officials.
Speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman noted that he was walking with the group at the time when the controversy came about, and he shared what he noticed about Scheffler’s reaction to the incident and the decision the officials made.
“So I get to them on the eighth hole and I watch Scottie tee off, and so, I’m up in the fairway, he hits the fairway and I’m doing all my notes, and I turn back around and I see that Scottie Scheffler’s on the tee, so I’m like, ‘oh, I guess Fitzy went to the bathroom or something because it’s been at least four of five minutes’. I just figured that’s what’s going on, so I’m not thinking anything of it,” he said.
“This is when I figured out something had gone terribly wrong, and this was after watching Fitzy’s tee shot – just a full quack hook right off the tee at eight. And I go back and I go to the guy who helps me with yardages who hands me sticky notes on how far guys are, he said, ‘he just spoke with Andres Gonzalez because they were covering it with ESPN PGA Tour Live, and said there was a driver fiasco with Fitzy and that he was trying to say that his driver was cracked and there was a big argument’. Scottie and Fitzy both felt like there was 100 percent a crack and that he wanted to get it replaced and he wasn’t going to hit that driver. So after a long debate, if you haven’t seen this, it lasted two holes, the debate between rules officials and not just Fitzy but Scottie.
“And from my view, yes Fitzy was definitely adamant about there being a crack in his driver, but I had a chance to watch Scottie, he was very upset that it wasn’t going to be replaced and to the point, he was having long discussions walking up the fairway, complaining about how Fitzy should get a driver replaced. And I asked Scottie about it in the fairway on nine, I was like how bad is he? He said, ‘well, you could see it, you could feel it, and then we just saw it on eight tee, his drive went 180 yards’.”
World number one needs to put Castle Pines behind him
It is definitely a nice touch from Scheffler to stick up for Fitzpatrick. Golf is unique in that players often call penalties on themselves, which helps maintain the integrity of the sport. So it is no surprise that Scheffler was determined to help his playing partner out.
However, it is probably fair to assume that he saw the opportunity to take some of his frustration out on the situation. Some think the long season is catching up with Scheffler, and that really could be the case when you consider everything he has been through on and off the course in 2024.
With one more big event left on the PGA Tour this season, Scheffler will hope that he can get his head back in the game at East Lake and bring home his eighth title of the year.
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