WATCH: Scottie Scheffler broke his round to spend time with a 9-year-old fighting Liver cancer at St. Jude’s FedEx Championship
US golfer Scottie Scheffler ended up in the fourth position at the recently concluded St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind. Although the ranking may have been disappointing given his recent Olympic victory, his heartwarming gesture of interacting with a young fan fighting liver cancer won hearts.
At the 18th green at the St. Jude Championship, amid a heated competition, Scheffler and his caddy, Ted Scott, spent time with 9-year-old Liliana. PGA Tour took to social media to share this adorable moment between her, Scheffler and Scott. According to the post, Liliana was treated for liver cancer at the age of eight. The young girl underwent a liver transplant and received radiation therapy and chemotherapy. After some rough days, she is now home and getting back to her life.
"She was treated for liver cancer at 8 years old, underwent a liver transplant and received radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Liliana had some rough days through her recovery, but is now home with her parents and siblings, and returning to her active self,"
Scottie Scheffler and Ted Scott's move was extremely sweet. So much so that Scheffler may not have won the competition, but he left the field winning hearts across. The World No. 1 will now be seen at the 2024 BMW Championship which will serve as the second fixture in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy disagree on PGA Tour rules ahead of Tour Championship
World No. 1 and reigning Olympic champion Scottie Scheffler isn't the biggest fan of the PGA Tour rules regarding the FedEx Tour Championship. The FedEx Cup Playoffs are divided into three events - the St. Jude Championship, the BMW Championship, and the Tour Championship - and all fixtures are played within a few days of each other.
The top 50 ranked golfers from the St. Jude Championship advance to the BMW Championship. The qualifying number then dwindles to the top 30, who then get to compete at the Tour Championship. The winner at the Tour Championship takes home the title.
Scottie Scheffler is currently enjoying one of the best seasons of his career. So far in 2024, he has won the Masters, the PGA Championship, the Players Championship, the Memorial Tournament, and a gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
The World No. 1 is also currently a whopping 2,000 points ahead of the next golfer Xander Schauffele in the FedEx Cup points. But all of this would go to waste if Scheffler fails to bag the Tour Championship at the end of this month. According to Mirror, speaking about that rule, the US golfer said:
"I talked about it the last few years. I think it’s silly. You can’t call it a season-long race and have it come down to one tournament. Hypothetically, we get to East Lake (host of the Tour Championship) and my neck flares up and it doesn’t heal the way it did at The Players,"
He referred to his neck issue that occurred in March this year during the Players Championship at Point Vedra Beach. Despite the pain, he became the first person to successfully defend his title at the tournament.
About the Tour Championship rule, Scottie Scheffler said that he doesn't think of the FedEx Cup as a season-long competition, as it is called.
"I finish 30th in the FedExCup because I had to withdraw from the last tournament, is that really the season-long race? No. It’s a fun tournament. I don’t really consider it the season-long race like I think the way it’s called. But you’ve got to figure out a way to strike a balance between it being a good TV product and it still being a season-long race,"
Scheffler didn't believe in boiling down an entire season of performance to one tournament.
"Right now, I don’t know exactly how the ratings are or anything like that, but I know for a fact you can’t really quite call it the season-long race when it comes down to one stroke-play tournament on the same golf course each year,"
The World No. 1 hasn't been able to win the FedEx Cup in the past two years despite having a considerable advantage. Last year, Norwegian golfer Viktor Hovland took home the title with Scheffler finishing 16 places behind him. The year before that, Scheffler conceded a six-stroke lead to Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy who won his third FedEx Cup.
Currently, McIlroy has half the points as Scottie Scheffler and believes the PGA Tour rule of deciding the winner at the Tour Championship was the only way any of the golfers will have a chance to challenge Scheffler. According to Mirror, McIlroy said:
"I love this format because if it wasn't this format, then none of us would have a chance against Scottie because he's so far ahead. So I really like this format. I think it makes the Tour Championship more exciting from a consumer standpoint,"
While McIlroy agrees that the best player of the season can't be decided based on one event, he believes that the Tour Championship is more of an entertainment.
"Is it the fairest reflection of who's been the best player of the year? Probably not. But I think at this point we're not in for totally fair; we're in for entertainment and for trying to put on the best product we possibly can,"
Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy both make some compelling points regarding the rule. In any case, both of them will feature in the upcoming 2024 BMW Championship at the Castle Pine Golf Club, Colorado.