The next time Scottie Scheffler tees it up will very likely be at Augusta National.
The World No. 1 withdrew from this week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open on Tuesday, citing family reasons. Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine reported that Scheffler’s withdrawal is not injury-related and is instead due to the imminent birth of his and his wife Meredith’s second child.
Matt Kuchar replaces Scheffler in the field.
If Scheffler doesn’t commit to next week’s Valero Texas Open, then his next start would come at the Masters.
Scottie and Meredith Scheffler had their first child, Bennett, in May of 2024, just shortly after he won his second green jacket. At the 2024 Masters, Scheffler said he was prepared to withdraw and leave the tournament if Meredith went into labor early. He went on to win by four, and Bennett was born a few weeks later, right before the 2024 PGA Championship.
Scheffler, whose year began win-T3-T4 but hasn’t posted a top-10 finish in his last three starts, has finished runner-up at the Houston Open three times, including each of the past two seasons when he used the event at Memorial Park Golf Course as his final Masters tune-up.
The four-time major champion opened the season with a win at the American Express and then went T3-T4 in Phoenix and Pebble Beach before having his streak of 18 consecutive top-10s snapped at the Genesis Invitational, where he finished in a tie for 12th. Since then, Scheffler finished in a tie for 24th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and tied for 22nd at the Players Championship.
Scheffler seemed out of sorts all week at TPC Sawgrass, where he ranked 44th in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and 37th in Approach.
Despite a few un-Scheffler-like showings in a row, the World No. 1 was pleased with how he handled things at TPC Sawgrass as he continued to fine-tune his game with the Masters on the horizon.
“I think with the way I hit it the first couple days, to kind of have the attitude that I did and the fight that I did, I think that — when I look at tournaments, I’m not thinking about winning, I’m thinking about approaching things the right way,” Scheffler said on Saturday at the Players. “I did my best to stay committed, and I did a good job, I think, of keeping the right attitude and keeping my head on straight in order to grind out a couple of rounds that were difficult. And then I shot a nice round today as well. So overall, I think I’ve been in a good spot with how my attitude and commitment have been to my shots. So that’s, for me, that’s a good week.”
Last year in Houston, Scheffler finished one shot behind champion Min Woo Lee. He then went on to finish fourth at the Masters before winning both the PGA Championship and Open Championship.
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