Scottie Scheffler has had it with questions about money.
Scheffler, who’s captured the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year title the two previous campaigns, is a good bet to take home a third consecutive award after winning seven times in 2024. The year was highlighted by his second Masters win and becoming the first to successfully defend the Players Championship. His five other victories came at signature events: Arnold Palmer Invitational, RBC Heritage, Memorial, Travelers Championship and Tour Championship, the last which wrapped up his first FedEx Cup. He was first on tour in scoring and strokes gained, and posted 16 top-10 finishes in 19 starts. Scheffler also triumphed at the Olympics, winning the gold medal at Le Golf National outside Paris.
However, like other golfers, most of the questions Scheffler has faced over this span have little to do with what’s going on inside the ropes. Speaking at the Hero World Challenge, Scheffler was asked about recent reports about American Ryder Cup players getting paid for participating in the event, and the World No. 1—who’s consistently asserted his apathy toward the financials of the professional game—made sure everyone knew where he stood on the matter.
“As far as I’m concerned, I don’t play golf for money,” Scheffler said. “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.
“If we’re getting paid to play—should we be getting paid the money we get paid to play in these tournaments now? We get paid pretty dang well to play in golf tournaments. I want to win just as bad for zero dollars as I do for whatever millions of dollars it is. The money’s not my motivation, it’s not something I think about, it’s just a bonus that happens when you’re out here playing tournaments. It’s a very nice thing to have.”
Scheffler was asked if the American players were being unfairly vilified about the Ryder Cup issue, and while replying in the affirmative, doubled down on his take about money’s role in golf.
“I think every one of our players would pay to play in the Ryder Cup if that’s what was asked of us. 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,” Scheffler said. “I definitely would. Like I said, I never played golf for money, I played golf because I love the game, I love competition. My motivating factor has never been more money and I feel like I think there’s a lot of stuff in this life and in this game that you can do for money and I’ve never been one of those players that has gone out and sought to try to build the best business brand for myself. What I love is I love coming out here and competing and playing golf, I go home and love living my life. I play because I love the competition.”
To punctuate the point, Scheffler was asked minutes later about his conversation with Tiger Woods, who joined Scheffler for a few holes during Wednesday’s pro-am. Scheffler delivered with a facetious response.
“Yeah, I think most of the time we just talk about money and how the purses need to be bigger,” he said. “Today we really grinded on the Ryder Cup and how it’s rubbish that we’ve never gotten paid. Tiger was really frustrated, he feels like he hasn’t made enough money in his career. I feel the same way, I feel like last year I didn’t get paid enough for what I did. Mostly that, just a bunch of griping.”
Scheffler did lead the tour in earnings this year, raking in over $29 million in prize money. Counting bonus pools—including $25 million for winning the FedEx Cup—his total haul was $62.5 million. Nevertheless, Scheffler had clearly tired of the conversation, evidenced by his final answer, when asked if he’s happy about the direction of the tour following three years of turbulence in the game.
“I think as much as we can stop talking about the finances of it, it would be a lot simpler.,” Scheffler said. “It’s much easier for me to sit here and answer questions about golf than it is to answer questions about money. I think that’s a frustrating topic for so many people. We’re overpaid as it is, we’re overpaid as it is. I play golf for a living, I don’t really do anything that special, I just hit a golf ball. I’m grateful for what we play for out here, but what I love is the competition. I think as much as we can get back in the competition of it, I think that’s a good thing.
“I think if you look at a year like Xander had last year and a year like I had, I think that’s great for competition on the Tour. A year like Xander’s, I had a great year but sometimes you almost feel jealous of a year like Xander’s because he won two majors. I think just the good competition that we have in our game right now I think is good for the sport and I think the more we can focus on that as players and in the media I think is a good thing.
Main Image: Michael Reaves
