One of the best and most event-filled seasons in recent golf history added another strange chapter Sunday. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler withdrew from the PGA Tour season-opening tournament, The Sentry, to undergo minor surgery to remove glass from his hand.
Scheffler was preparing Christmas dinner when a broken glass punctured his right hand, according to his manager, Blake Smith, and the glass fragments stuck in the palm which required surgery to remove them.
“He has been told that he should be back to 100 percent in three to four weeks,” Smith said.
While 2024 may go down as the season Scheffler firmly cemented his place as golf’s best player — winning eight tour events and nine tournaments worldwide — it was also a roller-coaster season off the course. He and his wife, Meredith, had their first child in the spring. Then, at his first tournament back at the PGA Championship, he was arrested on May 17 in Louisville before the second round began and charged with second-degree assault of a police officer when he attempted to enter Valhalla Golf Club. The charges were dropped on May 29.
Scheffler has held the world No. 1 title since May 2023, only bolstered by a second Masters victory in April, a Players Championship, an Olympic gold medal and a Tour Championship. To wrap up his epic campaign, he helped lead the U.S. team to a victory at the Presidents Cup. His expectations were only going to be higher in 2025, but Scheffler added one more strange incident under the wire.
The signature event in Maui, Hawaii, was set to begin Jan. 2 at the Plantation Course at Kapalua. It’s a tournament that invites all winners from the PGA Tour along with the top 50 players from the FedEx Cup standings in 2024. Now, it won’t have the top player in the game.
Required reading
(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images for The Showdown)
