Stewart Cink, Brian Gay pass 600-start milestone

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MCKINNEY, Texas — Scottie Scheffler tied for 47th in last year’s AT&T Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch, a forgettable result for a promising player who at the time did not possess a PGA TOUR win. What a difference a year makes. He returns this year as the No. 1 player in the world, the Masters champion and the clear front-runner in the FedExCup race. He’s a four-time TOUR winner, with all of those victories coming since February. His hometown TOUR stop was the site of his PGA TOUR debut eight years ago (he tied for 22nd, including a hole-in-one), and now it is a homecoming for the newly-minted Masters champ, who this week is playing his first individual tournament since his victory at Augusta National. Scheffler is making his fourth career start in the Nelson, playing Thursday with another local kid who’s had some success in this game, Jordan Spieth, in a 1:06 p.m. group that also includes defending champion K.H. Lee. Scheffler, 25, feels a special kinship to the tournament, which dates to 1968. He met Byron Nelson as a boy, long before he strafed the competition in high school tournaments for Highland Park, long before he won the 2014 U.S. Junior or became an All-American and Walker Cupper at the University of Texas. “I had the pleasure of meeting him a handful of times,” Scheffler said. “Byron Nelson’s always been very gracious with people, and he was gracious with me.” Their connection goes back to New Jersey. Scheffler was born in Ridgewood, a village in Bergen County, north of New York City. Nelson was an assistant professional at Ridgewood Country Club in 1935 and 1936. He minded the golf shop, played with members, gave lessons and adapted his “caddie” swing — flat and rounded, with loose legs and busy feet, fashioned in winds of Fort Worth — into the more upright move that led to 52 PGA TOUR titles in a World Golf Hall of Fame career. Nelson’s first two TOUR wins came during his tenure at Ridgewood, and it was that success that inspired him to continue creating the modern swing, which he is credited with being the father of. With the advent of steel shafts, Nelson was the first to use the “big muscles” of the body to square the clubface instead of rolling the hands. Nelson was known for aggressively driving the legs at the initiation of the downswing. “When I came into the ball, it seemed as though I was driving off my right foot, and in the impact area I felt that I almost gave a shove off that foot,” Nelson once wrote. It’s a defining characteristic of Scheffler’s swing, which was molded not far away at Royal Oaks Country Club, which the Schefflers joined after moving to Dallas from New Jersey when Scottie was 6 years old. Nelson died in 2006. Scheffler was 10, already carving it up with Spieth and Will Zalatoris on the Texas junior tours. Observers suspected he might have a future in the sport. Scheffler worked diligently on his game at Royal Oaks. He was taught by Randy Smith, whose other students include Justin Leonard and Ryan Palmer, Scheffler’s partner at the recent Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Scheffler won three Texas individual high school championships. Only Spieth, who went to Dallas Jesuit, has won that many, which is quite a feat, considering the deep well of golf talent in the state. The AT&T Byron Nelson offered Scheffler a sponsor’s exemption in 2014, back when the festive tournament was at TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas. The high-school senior made the best of his chance. He made the cut, for one. Then he aced the second hole on Saturday with a 5-iron from 221 yards. He beat a lot of good players that week. He even nipped Speith by two. His sister, Callie, caddied. “We had like half our high school watching,” Scheffler said. “We had a ton of fun.” The observers seemed to be right. Scheffler met his wife, Meredith, in geometry class at Highland Park. She went to Texas A&M, but their relationship nonetheless endured. They married in 2020. The rehearsal dinner was at Royal Oaks. Now, two years later, Meredith has rushed the greens in Phoenix, Orlando, Austin, Texas, and Augusta, Georgia, where Scheffler has lifted her off of her feet after his winning putts. “What a gift,” Meredith Scheffler said Wednesday after a charity event. “It just doesn’t feel real.” But it is quite real. He’s played and prevailed on a Ryder Cup team, beating the then-No. 1 Jon Rahm in Singles. It was Rahm who Scheffler supplanted atop the world ranking after winning the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play in the same town where he attended college. He’s earned $18.2 million. Kids stop him when he’s out, blushing when he gives them a fist bump and a smile. Since winning the Masters, Scheffler has thrown the ceremonial first pitch at a Texas Rangers game, dropped the puck at a Dallas Stars game and attended a Dallas Mavericks playoff game. “I enjoyed those a lot,” he said. “Other than that, (I’ve) just been hanging out and practicing.” He neglected to mention a recent Monday, when he and Zalatoris played an outing at Preston Trail, an old-school Dallas course, dripping with Texas golf history, that hosted the Nelson when Nicklaus, Watson and Trevino were the names to watch. Zalatoris shot 66. He felt pretty good. Then Scheffler added his scores. He shot 63. “Good grief, man,” Zalatoris said Wednesday, feigning exasperation. “Like, have an off day.” This week, the Schefflers are hosting Sam Burns, Seth Reeves and their families. The three players prepared steaks Monday night. They conducted the TOUR’s Bible study Tuesday. They’ve played board games to pass the time before Scheffler, the toast of the game since the WM Phoenix Open, makes his first start in Texas. “The beginning of the week was really fun,” Scheffler said, “and the tournament will be a good time too.” “Tomorrow afternoon will be a bit crazy,” said Spieth, “and I think we’ll embrace it.” Scheffler plans to. “It’s good to be at home,” Scheffler said. “I love Texas, I love Dallas and to have an event here is really special. I’m definitely looking forward to this week a lot.”

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