Why smooth operator Scottie Scheffler once melted down on college teammate at Texas

Scottie Scheffler is about as stoic as they come on the golf course. The world's top-ranked golfer rarely shows emotion while the cameras are on him at PGA Tour events, but he does have a fiery, competitive side that fans don't get to see often. 

Scheffler's former college teammate Beau Hossler knows all about that fiery side. When the two attended college together at the University of Texas, they nearly got into a fight after Scheffler mistakenly played Hossler's ball by mistake. The two were playing together in Lubbock, Texas ahead of regionals and accidentally played Titleist golf balls with the same number. 

At the Texas Children's Open on Thursday, Hossler claimed the ball mix-up was all Scheffler's fault.

"He wasn’t happy," Hossler told reporters Thursday after the first round of the Texas Children's Houston Open, per NBC Sports. "I was like, 'Well, listen, you’re the one who hit the wrong ball. Like, you hit it, I didn’t.' And it was a bad deal. It didn’t mean anything, but it was just — we’re really competitive, both of us.

"That was obviously a penalty and he wasn’t happy about it. I don’t blame him for not being happy about it. I still think it was his fault; he’s the only one who hit the wrong ball. I agree that I should have checked closer that it was actually my ball, but one way or another it’s a good story."

On one hole with a blind tee shot, Scheffler and Hossler hit drives down the middle of the fairway. Scheffler walked up to the ball farther away from the hole and played his approach shot to the green, but he quickly realized he had made a mistake.

John Fields, Scheffler's coach at Texas, expanded on the story on GOLF's Subpar Podcast earlier this year. 

"[Hossler] looks down and goes, 'This is not my ball.' You would have thought Mount Vesuvius just went off, like we had a volcano 15 yards below us," Fields told Subpar. "Scheffler got so mad when he figured out that he hit the wrong ball. He ran up to the green 260 yards on a dead sprint, picked up the ball, ran back, threw it at Beau’s feet.

"Beau goes ahead and hits the right shot. Scottie has lost the hole now. He just lost a hole, but it’s killing him. So now they are jawing against each other on the way up, and finally on the next hole, on the par 3, I told Beau, 'We are not going another step further until you apologize to Scottie for that.'"

Hossler wasn't interested in apologizing, though.

Luckily, the fracas didn't turn physical on the golf course, and the college teammates made up a few hours later.

“It was just one of those moments where we had been around each other for so long and you're in the heat of the moment, you’re out there competing and something happens," Scheffler told reporters Thursday. "Yeah, it’s pretty funny to look back on though, we get a good kick out of it."

After two rounds at Memorial Park Golf Course, Scheffler sits in a tie for fourth place at 5-under par. Hossler is tied for 28th at 1 under.