Scottie Scheffler describes 'butt crack' infection from earlier this summer

Reigning Masters champion Scottie Scheffler shot a 74 in the final round of The Open at St. Andrews in July but was in headlines on Friday morning after he posted a 5-under 65 at the Tour Championship in Atlanta, as noted by the Associated Press (h/t ESPN). 

It appears Scheffler had a good reason for not feeling quite like himself while in Scotland last month. 

According to Jaclyn Hendricks of the New York Post, Scheffler spoke with reporters Thursday and unveiled specifics about what one would imagine would be an uncomfortable situation. 

"You know, I really wasn’t playing bad. I played good at the Open. I had kind of a weird little injury thing that prevented me from playing my best on Saturday and Sunday, and then I was — if not for that, I would have felt like I had a really good chance to win the tournament," Scheffler explained. 

While the 26-year-old suggested he should maybe stop there, he continued. 

"Probably TMI, but I had what’s called a pilonidal infection. It’s an infection at the top of your butt crack," Scheffler said. "You can look it up. It was really hard for me to bend down. It was really hard for me to make a swing on Sunday. Walking was actually extremely difficult." 

Hendricks did some digging and discovered that this condition can occur "when hair punctures the skin and then becomes embedded." Understandably, a question of how Scheffler suffered this setback arose. 

"Yeah, I’m not going to say it here. I’ll tell you after because that would really be TMI," he remarked. 

Perhaps Scheffler will eventually decide that "too much information" is information that shouldn't be shared regarding this particular topic.