Scottie Scheffler will miss the first event of the season in Maui because of an incident that occurred on Christmas.
Scottie Scheffler’s first Christmas as a father did not go so smoothly.
While preparing dinner for his family, Scheffler sustained a puncture wound in the palm of his right hand, per his agent, Blake Smith. Small pieces of broken glass injured his hand, with some of those fragments remaining in place. He consequently had to have surgery to remove those bits of glass.
“He has been told that he should be back to 100% in three to four weeks,” Smith said in a statement provided by the PGA Tour.
“Unfortunately, he will have to withdraw from The Sentry. His next scheduled tournament is The American Express.”
The incident came eight days after Scheffler and Rory McIlroy defeated Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau in ‘The Showdown,’ a made-for-TV event pitting these two PGA Tour stars against their LIV Golf foes. Nine days before that, Scheffler won the Hero World Challenge in dominating fashion. He even adjusted his putting grip leading up to that event, which produced astonishing results, thus sparking plenty of intrigue and excitement for Scheffler’s 2025 season.
Of course, Scheffler’s 2024 campaign drew comparisons to some of the greatest seasons of all time, notably Tiger Woods in 2007 and Vijay Singh in 2004. He won nine events overall, including the Hero World Challenge and the Olympics. He also won The Masters, The Players, the Tour Championship, and four Signature Events.
But now he will have to miss the season-opening event in Maui, where he tied for fifth a year ago. Instead, Scheffler is scheduled to begin his season at The American Express in the Coachella Valley. Last year’s tournament saw Nick Dunlap become the first amateur to win a PGA Tour since 1991. Scheffler, meanwhile, tied for 17th, his third-worst result of the 2024 season.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
