PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Sporting a small, barely seen bandage on his proper palm, a well-rested Scottie Scheffler mentioned Tuesday he is prepared for his 2025 debut at this week’s AT&T Pebble Seashore Professional-Am after he was pressured to overlook two occasions as a consequence of a hand harm suffered whereas cooking over the Christmas vacation.
Scheffler, the world No. 1 coming off a historic nine-win season, performed a follow spherical at Pebble Seashore on Tuesday and bookended it with an in depth follow session during which he confirmed no apparent indicators of rust.
“It is slightly bizarre making [my debut] this late within the yr, nevertheless it’s good to be again. I am positively excited to play,” Scheffler mentioned. “It was irritating to be sitting at dwelling, not with the ability to play golf.”
Scheffler provided particulars Tuesday on the hand harm, which he suffered whereas making do-it-yourself ravioli at a rental home over the vacations. With out a typical software to chop the ravioli shapes out of the pasta dough, Scheffler opted to make use of a wine glass as an alternative. However as he pressed down on it to chop the pasta, the glass broke and the stem reduce his hand, particularly the “center higher half” of his palm, he mentioned.
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“Instantly after it occurred, I used to be mad at myself,” Scheffler mentioned. “It may have been lots worse.”
A close-by good friend and surgeon helped cease the bleeding, however Scheffler mentioned he knew one thing was unsuitable as a result of his hand wasn’t shifting a lot, and when it did, it harm. Scheffler and his group contacted a surgeon who had helped him with a thumb harm 10 years in the past and so they have been capable of function on his hand shortly and take away glass fragments from it.
The harm healed shortly, in keeping with Scheffler, however there was nonetheless a time frame when he was unable to do something, together with work out. In lieu of practising or taking part in, he determined to look at a few of his rounds from 2024.
“It was good to return and watch some velocity rounds simply to see how I managed my approach across the course and stayed affected person,” mentioned Scheffler, who final performed — and received — on the Hero World Problem in early December. “There’s a number of tournaments I appeared again at the place the factor that caught out probably the most was that I by no means actually overreacted to stuff. … Most of it was simply reminding myself of methods to sort of play match golf simply because I have been off for a bit.”
As soon as his hand healed and he was cleared to hit balls, Scheffler ramped up his preparation. Till 4 days in the past, it was unclear whether or not he could be able to play at Pebble Seashore, however because of a rigorous week of follow, he mentioned he felt snug committing to the match after beforehand having to skip the Sentry and the American Specific.
“I needed to push myself fairly onerous at dwelling to ensure I would not have a flareup right here on the highway,” Scheffler mentioned. “Tried to work out a few of that soreness and the scar tissue and stuff that goes in there after surgical procedure. I attempted to push myself fairly onerous within the chilly final week, and it continued to get higher and higher every day. So figured I would as properly come again out and begin taking part in.”
On Monday, Scheffler performed a full spherical at close by Cypress Level Membership.
He famous that he is not planning to exchange each occasions he missed by including two to his schedule, however he may add one to assist him prepare for the Gamers Championship in March and the following majors.
“Lacking these two occasions shouldn’t be enjoyable; I take pleasure in taking part in them,” he mentioned. “Simply because I missed two I do not wish to change the movement and cadence to my schedule. If I really feel like I wish to add one to get some further reps in, then I’ll.”
