Scottie Scheffler’s Mental Edge Is Why a Career Grand Slam Feels Inevitable

Scottie Scheffler’s greatest superpower is his mental game.

Scheffler will go down as one of the best tee-to-green golfers of all time. His consistency doesn’t come from a picture-perfect swing, exactly. I’d argue his ability to lock in, forget distractions and replicate his process time after time after time is the driving force behind his success.

Hell, this is a man who tied for eighth at a major a few days after being wrongfully arrested and thrown in a cell hours before his second-round tee time.

Before winning his fourth major last year at the Open Championship, Scheffler admitted he’d realized that the euphoria winning provides is fleeting in his now-famous “What’s the point?” speech. It’s reminiscent of the old story about David Duval flying home with the Claret Jug in tow and asking, “Is that all there is?”

I say all this to say that Scheffler isn’t motivated by trophies or records. He’s motivated by the process of being the best golfer he can be, which happens to mean being the best golfer in the universe.

So Scheffler winning the U.S. Open and completing the career Grand Slam is a matter of when, not if.

Starting next month, Scheffler will be asked questions about “what it would mean” to him to become the seventh player to complete the modern Grand Slam, and you’ll see headlines like, “‘Not my focus’: Scottie Scheffler brushes off Slam talk ahead of U.S. Open.”

If Scheffler doesn’t win this year at Shinnecock Hills, it’s hard to see him going on a 10-year journey to finish the Slam a la Rory McIlroy and the Masters. From everything we’ve seen, this isn’t someone who gets in his own head about something and can’t find his way out.

The U.S. Open famously stymied Phil Mickelson, a runner-up there six times, and Sam Snead, a four-time runner-up in a different era. That was the only major trophy missing from their shelves. From Snead’s days to current times, it’s been known as the most difficult major, where the USGA dials the difficulty up to 11 with its course setups (J.J. Spaun won with a score of 1 under par last year).

But Scheffler has already shown he can contend with U.S. Open tests. He’s finished T7, T2, third and T7 in four of the past five. The year he struggled, 2024, was statistically the worst putting performance of his major career, as Data Golf shows.

I mentioned Scheffler’s putting in these PGA Championship takeaways after he lost strokes gained with the putter for the first time this season. All he did in response was go 25 under at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson and card nothing higher than a four until he made par at a par-5 on the back nine on Sunday. I don’t think I can convey to non-golf fans how difficult that is to manage, even on a course as wimpy as TPC Craig Ranch. (Scheffler’s -25 was good for third place.)

Scheffler’s putting woes outside Philly don’t inspire confidence that he’ll do better over on Long Island, but then I remembered that he’s Scottie Freakin’ Scheffler. Tiger Woods put it best a few years ago when he said of Scheffler, “If he putts decent, he’s going to win. If he putts great, he blows away fields. If he has a bad putting week, he contends. He’s just that good of a ball-striker.”

Scheffler is Woods’ heir apparent and the anti-Tiger in the same breath. He didn’t have an Earl Woods figure egging him on as a child and he rarely shows much emotion on the course.

But if Scheffler wins the 2026 U.S. Open, he’ll complete the Slam in a span of five seasons -- something only Woods can say he did in a shorter time.