When Scottie Scheffler celebrated his recent victory at the British Open, it was hard to tell who drew the loudest cheers -- the world's No. 1 golfer or his toddler son.
Nike captured the family vibe with a viral advertisement showing Scheffler and Bennett, with the caption, "You've already won," before adding, "But another major never hurt."
After the win, Scheffler added fire to the week's hot story, which was his candid remarks about why he isn't obsessed with winning trophies week after week.
"My faith and my family is what's most important to me," he told reporters. "Those come first for me. … Golf is third in that order."
The key words were "in that order," noted Daniel Darling, director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Seminary. "Scottie Scheffler doesn't see golf as a god. He's thankful that God has given him the abilities that he has." However, he also "knows the challenge in life is to keep things in the right order, to focus on what really matters."
The firestorm began earlier that week, when the 29-year-old superstar drew nervous laughter by stressing: "I'm not here to inspire somebody else to be the best player in the world, because what's the point? … This is not a fulfilling life. It's fulfilling from a sense of accomplishment, but it's not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart.
"There's a lot of people that make it to what they thought was going to fulfill them in life. And then you get there, then all of a sudden you get to No. 1 in the world, and they're like, what's the point? … That's something that I wrestle with on a daily basis."
Scheffler's remarks revealed a "human side we too often don't get to see," noted Shane Ryan, writing for Golf Digest. "For those with ears to hear it, there was a deep message at play, and an almost unbearably honest one." Perhaps, Ryan added, if "someone like Scheffler, who has been to the mountaintop of his world, finds spiritual emptiness on that summit, what hope do the rest of us have?"
Elite golf writers at The Open were probably aware that Scheffler has always been candid about his Christian faith. It would have been interesting if reporters had asked follow-up questions about the origins of Scheffler's beliefs about fame, said Darling, reached by telephone. As a frequent reader of Bible studies and devotionals, the golfer could have pointed to these words from Jesus: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters -- yes, and even his own life -- he cannot be my disciple."
It would have been an opportunity, in sports coverage, to connect the dots with important voices in Christian teachings about work, talents, family and faith.
Obviously, Jesus wasn't "saying you should hate your family. This would be in direct violation of the (biblical) law, which calls us to honor and care for our families," wrote Darling, in his "Scottie's Secret" essay on Substack. "What Jesus is saying is this: unless you see God as the ultimate object of worship, you cannot and will not properly love your brothers, your sisters, your family, your job, your hobbies, your very life. … In his book The Four Loves, C. S. Lewis quoted an old proverb arguing that any 'love,' taken to an extreme, becomes evil: 'Love becomes a demon when it becomes a god.'"
In the controversial pre-tournament press conference, Scheffler noted: "I'm blessed to be able to come out here and play golf. But if my golf ever started affecting my home life or it ever affected the relationship I have with my wife or with my son, that's going to be the last day that I play out here for a living. … I would much rather be a great father than I would be a great golfer."
This wasn't a "new strategy" for life that Scheffler suddenly thought up, stressed Darling.
"Scottie was talking about a struggle what we see in real life. That may be news to some people, but it isn't news to him. He knows what he's talking about. He's living it."