SOUTHPORT, England — Anniversaries.
They mean a lot to some and little to others.
For Scottie Scheffler, his win at the British Open a year ago at Royal Portrush means little when it comes to defending that title this week at Royal Birkdale.
“I’m not really a good reflector, I’m really not,” Scheffler said last week when asked about his Open victory, which gave him the third leg of the career Grand Slam. “I don’t really sit around too much and think about the past, to be honest with you. I feel like I’m in the middle of my career, and probably the end of my career is more a time to reflect.
“Right now, I’m just focused on what I need to do, and maybe I should sit and enjoy things more, but that’s just not my nature.”
Jordan Spieth won the Claret Jug the last time the Open was played at Birkdale, in 2017. Fair or unfair, that feels like the last significant moment of his career. Spieth has won just twice since that memorable final round — the 2021 Valero and the 2022 Heritage. But he’ll always have Birkdale.
“A lot of my most fond memories of that, especially the final round,” Spieth said recently. “It’s a great golf course, an aerial golf course, one of the hardest venues we play in an Open.”
Spieth said he joked with Scheffler recently, asking him, “Well, are you the defending champ or am I the defending champ next week?”
“He was like, ‘No, it’s you,’ ” Spieth said. “I was like, ‘No, no, no, you don’t get to do that. It’s you.’ ”
Scheffler isn’t the sentimental type — at least not publicly. He did offer up some tidbits about his appreciation of the Claret Jug, and how he doesn’t want to give it back — which is the custom for the defending champion whenever he first arrives onto the property.
“I was surprised how much I enjoyed the Claret Jug,” Scheffler said. “It will be very tough to hand it back on Tuesday next week, but I’ll be fighting like heck to get it back on Sunday.”
Justin Rose, a native son of England, has never won the Claret Jug, even though it looked like he might go on to win more than one based on his Open debut in 1998 at Birkdale.
He was a 17-year-old amateur in that ’98 Open, which was won by Mark O’Meara in a playoff, and Rose delivered a signature moment when he holed out a 50-yard chip on the 72nd hole to finish tied for fourth.
Rose would turn professional the next day and famously miss the cut in his first 21 professional tournaments — something that would break the will of many players. But not Rose, who’s gone on to win 13 times on the PGA Tour, including the 2013 U.S. Open, capture an Olympic gold medal and earn some $76 million in a brilliant career that’s still thriving at age 45.
Rose later recalled the “innocence and freedom” he had in ’98 at age 17. He later reflected on that burst onto the international golf scene, which was marred by his difficult start as a professional.
“That shot created a lot of pressure for me,” Rose said, referring to the Birkdale hole-out on his final shot as an amateur. “I’m grateful that I feel like I’ve done a good job living up to that moment.”
When you speak to Scheffler, he doesn’t seem to be concerned about what he will be remembered for. He remains locked into the present, rather than dwelling on or even reveling in the past.
This has been a weird year for Scheffler, who won 13 times in 2024 and ’25, but has only one victory this year, at the American Express back in January. That has drawn many questions about what’s wrong with him, which is something that clearly annoys Scheffler.
“How would I assess my season?” Scheffler said, repeating a reporter’s question at last week’s Scottish Open. “I feel like I get that question every single week. I haven’t had a good answer yet. I’ll try again. I think I’ve been really close to winning some tournaments, and that can be frustrating.”
Outside of the one win, Scheffler has eight top-five finishes this year, including four runner-up results.
“There’s always tournaments I feel like I should have won and I didn’t,” he said. “That’s just part of the game. You’ve got to ride with it, kind of the highs and lows.”
Scheffler then referred back to the deep meaning-of-life thoughts he shared in the interview room after winning the Open last year, essentially about how winning golf tournaments doesn’t define his life.
“Like I said last year at the Open: It’s not a satisfying venture playing professional golf,” he said. “So, try to take the good with the bad.”
