'I think it would be silly' - Scottie Scheffler admission about his hand injury

Scottie Scheffler reckons he’d be “silly” to try and claim that the nasty hand injury he sustained on Christmas Day while making ravioli hadn’t contributed to him failing to fire on all cylinders so far this year.

But, in a media chat on Wednesday, the world No 1 insisted he will be heading to Augusta National in three weeks time in good fettle as he bids to win The Masters for a third time in four years.

Scheffler required surgery to remove glass fragments from his right palm after suffering a puncture wound from a broken wine glass that he was using to try and roll out pasta dough.

As a result, he was forced to delay his first appearance of the new PGA Tour season until the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at the end of January.

Scottie Scheffler poses with the trophy after winning the 2024 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club | Warren Little/Getty Images

The 28-year-old finished ninth behind Rory McIlroy on the California coast and has added four top-25 finishes, including a third place in the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines, since then.

However, his form heading into the opening major of the season is not nearly as good as when he claimed a first Green Jacket in 2022 then landed a second one last year.

“You know, I think it would be silly to say that it didn't set me back a little bit because I had to take a good amount of time off,” said Scheffler, speaking in a press conference ahead of his latest Masters title defence, of the injury. “I'm a right-handed golfer. So any sort of injury you have to that hand, especially a surgical one is going to have some sort of effect.

“But, at the end of the day, accidents happen. I can't live in a bubble. You know we were literally making Christmas dinner and sustained an injury. That's the stuff that happens.

“So do I regret anything? Obviously not. Did it set me back a little bit? Maybe some. But, each day, my hand continues to improve. My body continues to get back to where it needs to be, and I think my swing is coming around, as well. So I'm definitely excited about the improvements that I'm making.”

Bidding to win The Players Championship for the third year in a row, Scheffler had to settle for a tie for 20th behind McIlroy at TPC Sawgrass in his latest outing.

“The results this year have been decent,” he added. “I feel like I'm really close to playing some really nice golf again. I've got another good week of prep here at home, and I felt like we learned a lot last week at Sawgrass.

“I got back in the gym pretty quick yesterday. Went out and hit some balls as well. I'm definitely excited about the things that we kind of figured out at the moment.”

Scheffler admitted that his ball-striking so far that year hasn’t been as good as it had been over the past couple of seasons while his game around the greens had suffered from the unexpected lay-off.

But he said: “I feel like I'm getting sharper and sharper and getting closer and closer to playing some really good golf as the season gets going for me, and definitely excited about the events coming up.”

Scheffler went into last year’s event in Georgia as a red-hot favourite but McIlroy, with two wins now under his belt on the PGA Tour this season, is vying for favouritism with the bookmakers this time around.

“Well, believe it or not, I'm not going to gamble on the Masters Tournament, so I could not really care any less,” said a smiling Scheffler in reply to being asked about whether he wanted to be the favourite again.