Scheffler's college coach at Texas recalls moment he knew Scottie was bound for greatness

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Scottie Scheffler hit a ball into a bush off the No. 16 tee at Spanish Oaks Golf Club in Austin, and that's when Texas head men's golf coach John Fields knew he had to recruit him.

Scheffler, who won the Open Championship in dominating fashion Sunday at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland for his fourth career major title, was in the eighth grade when Fields first saw him. Fields recalled Scheffler's errant shot as a result of bad luck after hitting a sprinkler head, but what impressed the Longhorns coach of 29 years the most was how Scheffler reacted to it. He did so with the same maturity and professionalism that golf fans see him do today.

"He hit that sprinkler dead square, and it jumped right over the green, cart path and into a bush. He comes by me, and I wanted to see his reaction, and I saw him look at the sprinkler," Fields said. "He had a grin on his face and said, 'Can you believe that?' He wasn't mad, angry or felt that he had gotten a bad break ... he managed to get out of the bush, chip it within a foot and made a really nice bogey."

It was that moment when Fields said to himself that he was going to recruit Scheffler. His calmness and even-keeled demeanor, on full display every weekend on the PGA Tour, was something Fields couldn't believe in a player so young.

Fields said that since Mack Brown was recruiting football players that young, he thought he'd take a page from Brown's playbook and do the same.

"Mack led the way there," he said with a laugh. "We thought, 'Hey, that's a good idea.'"

Fields took advice from other successful coaches at Texas, too. He said men's basketball coach Rick Barnes told him to listen to his players when it comes to recruits. One of Fields' players at the time, All-American Charlie Holland, told him that Scheffler was the next best thing.

"Charlie said, 'Coach, for sure, it's this little guy at Royal Oaks (Country Club in Dallas). His name is Scottie Scheffler, and I'm telling you, he's going to be great.'"

Scheffler golfed for the Longhorns from 2014-2018, earning his finance degree from the McCombs School of Business at Texas. He won the Western Intercollegiate and the Big 12 Conference championships as a freshman in back-to-back fashion and the East Lake Cup in his junior season. He placed third at the NCAA championships that season.

With his fourth major championship in three seasons and a chance at the career grand slam at next year's U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, Scheffler is being compared more and more to Tiger Woods. Scheffler calls them "a bit silly," but Fields said there are some similarities with how both players have accumulated victories. Can Scheffler catch Tiger's 15 major victories, and then get to Jack Nicklaus' 18? Time will tell, but he can't be counted out, Fields said.

"Up to this point, there are comparables, and it's a pretty lean group," he said. "Whether it's Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods, that's rarefied air to be able to talk about."

Scheffler has been No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings for 114 consecutive weeks and 149 total weeks. He has 17 PGA Tour wins to go with two Masters titles, a PGA Championship and his Open Championship.

Scheffler's viral existential and philosophical comments before the Open Championship about not defining himself as a golfer and that he'd quit golf if it affected his ability to be a husband and father didn't surprise Fields. He saw that in Scheffler long ago, and he thinks Scheffler is causing other tour golfers to re-evaluate how they approach the game.

"I think there's a lot of tour players rethinking about how they need to go about their business right now," Fields said, "just simply listening to this entirety of last week, starting with the five minute press conference where Scottie really refined out where he was as a person, as a father, as a husband, as a family man, with his faith, and then also what he enjoys doing. But it's not everything to him, and I think there are a lot of tour players out there that it is everything to them, and they aren't as free to play the type of golf that Scottie is playing."