Image: mensjournal.com
The greatest golfer in the world today, according to the Official World Golf Ranking, is Scottie Scheffler. A native of Ringwood, New Jersey, he is 29 years old and married with a 14-month-old son. Last week he cruised to victory at Royal Portrush, Co Antrim, winning the Open Championship by 4 shots over Harris English to lift his second major trophy of 2025 this year.
Earlier this year at Quail Hollow, North Carolina, he won the PGA Championship, and he now has his name on 3 of the 4 major championship trophies. His Portrush performance helped him to join a list of players to win the Masters, PGA Championship and The Open before 30 : Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tiger Woods – and now Scottie Scheffler.
However, it was not his golf prowess that made headlines last week, instead it was his comments in a press conference in which he expressed feelings of questioning the meaning of his success, suggesting a potential existential crisis. He acknowledged the success of winning tournaments, including an Olympian gold medal, but admitted that these accomplishments don’t ultimately satisfy him. This led to him questioning his motivation and the purpose of his dedication to golf.
An existential crisis is a period of internal conflict where a person grapples with questions of identity, meaning and purpose in life. It can be triggered by major life events, personal losses, or a sense of detachment from one’s accomplishments. In Scheffler’s case, the very success he has achieved in golf seems to be the catalyst for these questions.
Scheffler’s speech was interpreted in some quarters as a kind of personal crisis: he is burnt out; he has lost his desire; he is quitting golf. Yet his point was not to reveal some great personal turmoil, but instead to lay bare the realities of what it is really like to achieve your dreams.
What he was describing was “arrival fallacy”, the misplaced belief that reaching a particular goal will bring lasting happiness and fulfilment. In his book Happier, Tal Ben-Shahar explains arrival fallacy as the feeling of disappointment or emptiness that follows success, which comes as a shock in itself. There is an expectation that the goal will make you feel fulfilled and satisfied, but once you arrive, that sense of completion is brief or even non-existent.
Scheffler went on to say that his successes in golf did not satisfy the deepest places of his heart; when he wins it feels awesome, but just for about 2 minutes. His family is his priority, and he would rather be a good father than a good golfer. This last observation, while commendable is surely universal. Most people would feel the same way and even those without family would understand why they do.
The Search For Meaning
Scheffler touched on something more fundamental in his musings, which applies to all of us irrespective of what we have, or do not have. Vicktor Frankl lost everything in the Nazi deathcamps, but he fashioned meaning out of the darkest abyss.
Those of us who are Christians know that life is but a fleeting thing. The very fact of ageing, and physical, as well as mental decline shows us this. As we get older our hold on, and desire for, material goods slips, because ultimately, they offer little consolation. People can use all sorts of cosmetic treatments to stem the assault of time, but they cannot escape death. Wherever people live and whenever they live, they find themselves faced with three inescapable problems: how to win food and shelter from their environment ( a problem posed by nature), how to get along with one another (the social problem) and how to relate themselves to the total scheme of things (the religious problem).
If the third issue seems less important than the others perhaps, we should remind ourselves that religious artefacts are the oldest that archaeologists have discovered!
It would seem that religion has been around for a long, long time and that humans have always felt a pull towards a being and a meaning outside themselves. The word religion comes from the Latin and while there are a few different translations the most prevalent roots take you back to the Latin word, ligare , meaning “to tie”, “to bind” or “to connect”, Adding the “re” before “ligare” causes the word to mean “Re-bind” or “Re-connect”.
That connection was broken after the Fall when humanity became separated from God; to re-connect with God implies a reconciliation between the Eternal and the Everyday. The line was not however disengaged and for Christians, Jesus is the bridge between the two worlds. Through him, we are given grace for the journey.
Scottie Scheffler has previously discussed his Christians faith and his belief that golf doesn’t define him as a person. He said, “I’m a faithful guy. I believe in a Creator. I believe in Jesus. Ultimately, I think that’s what defines me the most.”
I am reminded of the famous quote of Saint Augustine of Hippo,
“You have made us for Yourself O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.”
Written by Marie–Therese Cryan