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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — There was quite a crowd waiting for Scottie Scheffler at the 10th tee box at TPC Sawgrass on Thursday morning when he arrived just before his 8:52 a.m. first-round tee time at the Players Championship.
Most of the several hundred people couldn’t help but chuckle when the starter read the No. 1–ranked player in the world’s lengthy list of accolades: 2023 and 2024 Players champion, current PGA champion, current Open champion, and current Olympic gold medalist—he could have kept going. It was reminiscent of the reception Tiger Woods was accustomed to.
Scheffler was the highlight of that morning’s marquee group, which included No. 3–ranked Tommy Fleetwood and two-time major winner Justin Thomas. After the trio teed off, a buzz filled the air, and most of the crowd followed Scheffler & Co. down the No. 10 fairway.
Whether he likes it or not, Scheffler has undoubtedly become one of the biggest faces of the PGA Tour—from appearing in promotional campaigns to taking up more media obligations, and everything in between.
That’s for a good reason.
Scheffler entered the Players Championship as No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the 142nd consecutive week, a streak behind only Woods, who had two separate streaks occupying the top spot of 281 and 264 weeks.
The four-time major champion Scheffler has made $102.99 million in official PGA Tour prize money (that doesn’t even include bonuses like the $25 million he got for winning the FedExCup in 2024), putting him third on the career-earnings list behind only Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Scheffler, 29, won his 20th PGA Tour event in January, becoming the third-fastest player (behind Jack Nicklaus and Woods) to accomplish that feat in 151 starts.
The numbers are staggering, but Scheffler’s demeanor almost never gives the impression he knows that.
“He’s authentically modest, which is a lovely characteristic,” longtime sports and golf broadcaster Jimmy Roberts tells Front Office Sports.
It’s clear Scheffler is having Tiger-like success on the golf course, but whether his run as world No. 1 will translate into the same impact Woods had off the course remains to be seen.
Subtle Star Power
As evidenced by the fans following Scheffler this week at the Players Championship, he has star power, even if he chooses to keep that under wraps most of the time.
While Scheffler does have 1.8 million Instagram followers, you won’t find him posting daily content like Bryson DeChambeau does for his 4.3 million followers. And it’s unlikely Scheffler is bothered by McIlroy (3.7 million), Rickie Fowler (2 million), or any other golfers having more followers than him.
“He quietly always does the right thing, and is a superstar off the golf course with his family, his faith, and his contributions to charity,” World Golf Hall of Famer Davis Love III said when asked by FOS during a roundtable discussion at The Players.
“Modest” and “quiet” are also accurate ways to describe Scheffler’s endorsement portfolio, which is filled with a mix of top-tier brand names, smaller companies, and start-ups:
- Nike apparel
- TaylorMade golf clubs
- NetJets private aviation
- Rolex watches
- Huntington National Bank
- Turtlebox speakers
- GolfForever fitness training company
Scheffler is also an equity investor in GolfForever, and he is the owner of a Sport Fishing Championship team, the Texas Lone Stars. He plays a Titleist ball but is not an official ambassador for the golf equipment manufacturer.
“I don’t know that he’s going to be interested in engaging to the degree that he probably could, in terms of off-the-course opportunities,” says Roberts, whose new Big Swing Media company explores the business of lifestyle sports, including golf.
Scheffler is represented by the Dallas-based Hambric Sports agency, a hometown partnership for the golfer who plays out of Royal Oaks Country Club. A University of Texas alum, Scheffler has opted to stay in-state professionally, rather than moving to a flashier pro golf hotbed like Jupiter, Fla., where Woods, McIlroy, and other stars reside.
With a second child on the way this year, Scheffler has preferred to play mostly in the U.S. to stay close to his wife Meredith and son Bennett, as opposed to the recent world tour that McIlroy has ventured upon.
Numbers Game
Golf’s TV ratings famously spiked during Woods’s prime playing years. No one, including Scheffler, has been able to mirror that.
When Scheffler won the Open Championship in July, viewership of NBC’s final-round coverage was up 21% compared to 2024. But when he won the PGA Championship in May, ratings on CBS were down 4%.
Scheffler’s victory in January at The American Express averaged 617,000 final-round viewers on Golf Channel, a 127% increase over the 2025 edition in which Scheffler did not play.
If Scheffler wins the U.S. Open in June, he’ll become the seventh male golfer to complete the career Grand Slam, after McIlroy accomplished the feat at last year’s Masters.
Maybe that would catapult Scheffler to an even higher level of stardom—or maybe it wouldn’t change a thing.
“My expectations of myself are almost more shot by shot,” Scheffler said ahead of The Players this week.
That singular focus is what makes Scheffler so hard to beat on the course, but it’s likely what’s shaping his attitude off the course, too.
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