World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler stopped in the middle of a casual round at his home club in Dallas to congratulate a junior golfer on winning a club championship, according to former PGA Tour player Colt Knost, who was playing in the group.
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Knost told SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio that no cameras were present to capture the moment. He repeated the story on Subpar, in a clip the show posted on October 15. Knost said the group was playing a wolf game at Royal Oaks Country Club last Friday when Scheffler spotted five junior golfers on the range near the tee. Knost said he believed the kids play at Highland Park, the school Scheffler also attended. Scheffler called out to ask whether the junior club champion was among them. The player’s reaction, Knost said, was immediate.
“The kid got the biggest smile on his face and Scotty goes over, high-fives him, gives him a hug, said, ‘Dude, that was awesome, man. I was so pumped when I heard you won.’”
Knost said Scottie Scheffler also talked to the juniors for a few minutes while the group’s round was still going. He said he later told Scheffler’s manager, Blake Smith, who was in the group, that people don’t know about the moment and that it was “special.”
Knost said the point was that Scheffler had no audience. “Not everybody would do that, not everybody would take the time out of their day while they’re playing golf to go over there, and that kid, it made his day. It made his life. He’ll go to school this week and he’ll be telling everyone, ‘Dude, Scottie Scheffler knows I won the junior club champion.’”
He added a contrast with players who know “how to act when a camera’s on.” Scheffler, Knost said, does things “you don’t even know about.”
A Home Club With a Long History
Knost has known Scottie Scheffler since he was a kid. At Royal Oaks, Scheffler learned from professional golfers such as Justin Leonard, Ryan Palmer, Harrison Frazar, and Knost. His family borrowed money to join the club so he would have a place to practice. As a young golfer, Scheffler dreamed of hitting balls on the side of the range where the Tour pros practiced. Years later, he returned to that same range and spent time with the club’s young golfers.
Scheffler went on to win the 2013 U.S. Junior Amateur, beating Davis Riley 3 and 2 in the 36-hole final. He also won three straight Texas individual state titles while attending Highland Park High School from 2012 to 2014.
A Royal Oaks friend said after Scheffler’s 2022 Masters win that the club treats him as one of the group. Scheffler’s off-course work with children has a documented history. He is involved with Triumph Over Kid Cancer, started by his childhood friend James Ragan, who died at 20. Scottie Scheffler held a fundraiser for the group after Ragan died in 2014.
Similar Gestures From Other Golfers
Golf has seen several moments when players went out of their way to make young fans happy. In 2015, Phil Mickelson stopped at a children’s lemonade stand during the Memorial Tournament and gave them a $100 tip. In 2023, Collin Morikawa surprised 11 young golfers through a Youth on Course event and challenged them to a putting contest. Connor Syme once helped a young fan whose autograph poster had blown into the water, inviting him to putt on the 16th green and giving him a signed ball. That same year, Greg Norman carried a young fan over to meet his hero, Cameron Smith, at LIV Golf DC, where Smith signed the boy’s cap.
What makes Scheffler’s story special is that he did it without cameras or anyone asking him to. He was simply playing with young golfers at his local club.
Scottie Scheffler had spent more than 170 straight weeks by late August as the world’s No. 1 golfer. Knost has also said that Scheffler gives his best every time he plays, whether at a Tour event or a casual round with friends at Royal Oaks. By sharing what happened that Friday, Knost wanted people to see this side of Scheffler, too.
For one young golfer at the club, the moment meant something simple: the world’s best golfer knew he had won.