Scottie Scheffler explaining how a shank works was way funnier than it should be

By

After picking up his eighth victory of the year and amassing more than $A90 million for the PGA Tour season at the Tour Championship, the last thing Scottie Scheffler wanted to talk about was the one bad shot he hit all week. But those of us in the media tend to gravitate towards the negative.

Breaking down Scottie Scheffler’s year by the numbers is pure insanity

There was very little negative in Scheffler’s final-round 67, which saw him reach 30-under-par for the week, which includes his starting strokes score of 10-under. At the newly renovated and surely more fiery East Lake, 20-under for four rounds is ‘golfing your ball’, which is what Scheffler does.

But there was one moment on that final day in Atlanta that had everyone scratching their head – a Scheffler shank from a greenside bunker at the short par-4 eighth hole. A take-your-breath-away-type hosel rocket:

That led to a second straight bogey that saw Scheffler’s once vast seven-shot lead shrink to two. Was it happening again? Was the clear best player of the year going to throw away the end-of-year crown? 

Yeah, not quite. Scheffler played the rest of his round in four-under, bogey-free, a final-stamp on an all-time great season. One reporter was curious enough to ask him what the hell happened on the eighth, though, and it led to an incredible exchange. Scheffler went full Taurean Prince:

Handled perfectly. And good job by ESPN reporter Mark Schlabach, who asked the question, taking it all in stride. Scheffler’s smile at the end indicated it was all in good fun. 

Oh, and if you’re wondering what “full Taurean Prince” meant, our old pal Claire Rogers was the first to make the comparison on Twitter. Prince was the basketball player from Baylor University who hilariously described what a rebound was when a reporter asked, “How does Yale out-rebound Baylor?” when Prince’s fifth-seeded Baylor Bears were upset by 12th-seeded Yale in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament: