Scottie Scheffler has made it known by now that specific achievements don’t motivate him. So it makes sense he would say the same about the possibility of completing the career Grand Slam this week.
At a press conference Tuesday ahead of the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on Long Island, the world No. 1 echoed the sentiment from his now-famous “What’s the point?” monologue at last year’s Open Championship.
Days before he won that major for the third leg of the Slam, Scheffler said the sense of accomplishment he gets from being the best golfer he can be could not be mistaken for a truly “fulfilling” life, adding that winning tournaments, even majors, feels “awesome for two minutes.”
It was more of the same Tuesday when asked the inevitable question about what’s at stake in his first opportunity to complete the Slam.
“It’s kind of a funny thing. It’s like, yeah, if I win this tournament, that would be amazing, but I think then I show up the next week, and it’s like, OK, now Scottie’s won the grand slam, he’s won all these golf tournaments. Now where do we go from here?” Scheffler said.
“So no matter what, I think as a player and as a professional athlete, you’re never going to live up to the expectations of people.
“I think sometimes that’s a little bit of the fallacy in our sport is like, if I win the U.S. Open, then I’m going to be satisfied. I’ve won all the tournaments, and my career is essentially over, and I’ve accomplished everything I could want to accomplish. But I think the goalposts are always just moved further and further.”
Scheffler pointed out that he’s already achieved more than anyone would expect from a college prospect of his caliber. It was Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa who were on most people’s radars five years ago, less so Scheffler.
His national open still holds plenty of meaning to Scheffler, to be sure.
“For me, would it be a dream to win the U.S. Open? Of course,” he said. “But at the end of the day, like I — the grand slam has never been a motivating factor for me. I always just wanted to be the best version of myself, and that got me this far.”
“This far” includes 20 wins on the PGA Tour and four majors — two Masters titles, followed by the PGA Championship and Open Championship last year. For context, his T14 finish at last month’s PGA at Aronimink Golf Course was his worst showing at a major in nearly two years.
Scheffler rode a second-round 64 at Royal Portrush to a four-stroke victory at last year’s Open. He confessed Tuesday that he thought that would be the most difficult one for him to win in his career.
“I always felt like the Open would be one of the hardest ones for me to win because, like I said earlier, I didn’t have a lot of experience playing over there in the UK,” he said. “Growing up, I played a lot of golf here in the States. I didn’t really play much internationally at all. For me, not having the experience on links golf, I would have said that would probably be the most difficult for me to win.”
Scheffler has four top-10 finishes at the past five U.S. Opens, and the closest he came to victory was a tie for second behind England’s Matt Fitzpatrick in 2022.
If he were to lift the trophy on Sunday, it would mark the second Grand Slam celebration in a 14-month span after Tiger Woods was the only player added to the list between 1967 and 2024. Rory McIlroy finally got the Masters monkey off his back in April 2025; Scheffler would be No. 7 in golf history.
Scheffler admitted that would be a great thing for the sport and ideally create some new fans.
“I think it would definitely bring more eyeballs to the sport, which is always a good thing,” Scheffler said. “I think golf is a great game. I think it’s something that everybody should have a chance to be introduced to. I think you learn a lot about yourself. I think you learn a lot of life lessons through the game of golf.
“Some of my best friends in the whole world I know just from playing golf and playing golf with them and growing up with those types of guys. This game obviously means a lot to me as a player, and it’s been a huge part of my life for a long time. It’s something that I would love for more people to get introduced to.”
