Scottie Scheffler Loses Cool At Tour Championship

During a high-pressure tournament, it isn’t uncommon to see an athlete show some emotion.  Anger and frustration are just a reality of the job.  An athlete lines up the shot, carefully makes the calculations in their head, takes the shot, and misses.  Something like that is enough to make any player show their anger.  Golf is no stranger to this; a few times this year, a player took their anger out on something either in the moment or kept it bottled up inside.  During the Tour Championship, the normally calm Scottie Scheffler expressed such anger.

Golfers Who Got Angry

Throughout the 2025 season, there have been four notable instances of players getting angry.  During the US Open, Rory McIlroy got so angry that he threw his club.  Wyndham Clark took his rage out in the Oakmont locker room.  Earlier during the PGA Championship, Clark threw his club at an advertisement sign, breaking his club in the process.  Meanwhile, on LIV, Brooks Koepka missed a shot and got so angry that he took a swing at a tee marker, almost hitting spectators in the process.  Now there is one major difference between these reactions and Scheffler’s.  Scottie Scheffler didn’t put others in danger during a tantrum.

Scottie Scheffler Loses His Cool

During the second round of the Tour Championship, what happened was that Scottie Scheffler had a ball stuck in the bunker.  He swings, misses his shot, and, in anger, he takes out some rage on the sand.  Fan backlash was along the lines that a golfer like him needs to keep his cool.  The sport can be frustrating, but it is seen as a gentleman’s sport.  Elsewhere in coverage, a different angle began to form.  The idea that it is good to see Scheffler express some emotion during a match.
Coverage Of Scheffler’s Outburst

Over on Sky Sports, Henni Zuel took a positive angle to Scheffler’s outburst.  Zuel spoke on Scheffler, saying:

“I actually am going to say I love to see it. It’s good to see that he cares. That something gets under his skin enough, especially after his comments at The Open, which I know were meant in a way of having a great mindset and detaching yourself from golf and the result, which is commendable,” she continued.  “But as a fan of the game and as a fan of wanting the best players to have something which means something to them, like Rory McIlroy winning the Masters, you could see what it meant to him. It’s good to see that it means something to Scottie Scheffler, that it does annoy him.”

Normally, when an outburst happens, most respond by saying that it shouldn’t happen, and those who don’t express a lot of empathy.  This was seen during the locker room incident, where players had empathy with Clark’s frustration.  Scheffler is getting both empathy and criticism, but also praise.

Why Is Scheffler Different

As stated above, Scottie Scheffler is getting a different reaction, mostly because he kept his rage directed at the ground in a bunker.  No damage has been done, and no one was in danger.  Sure, no one got hurt in the other examples, but the possibility was there.  There is also the factor that Scheffler normally keeps himself calm and collected during stressful matches.  This was one of the few times his demeanor broke.  Scheffler may have received criticism for this outburst, but due to the circumstances surrounding it, he is largely getting a pass.  If he feels the anger again in the future, he will most likely take it out in a similar way.