It was the second day of the 2024 BMW Championship. Hideki Matsuyama had just reached Castle Pines to warm up for the second round when he was hit with a pain in the back. The result? “I am disappointed to have to withdraw from the BMW Championship,” announced the golfer. Truly unfortunate and difficult for the Japanese pro to suffer such a situation. And a fellow PGA Tour pro agrees as well. Enter Scottie Scheffler!

The current No. 1 golfer in the FedEx Cup standings was spotted in an interview ahead of the 2024 TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club, divulging his thoughts on the same. “I would agree with that,” said the athlete while alluding to how “everybody is dealing with a little something at the end of the year.” 

“It’s been a long season. Especially now with the way the new schedule is, it really is a sprint to get here,” added the 2024 Masters champ while hinting at the 36 official FedEx Cup events that started in January, including the majors. The pro then said, “There’s not really places in the schedule to take large breaks.” Interestingly, out of the 36 tournaments, Scheffler has just made a total of 18 starts, in which he won six and finished in the top 10 in 15 events while making the cut in all of the tournaments.

The 2-time major champ then went through the PGA Tour schedule while highlighting the most important events of the circuit in each month. He called attention to the PLAYERS Championship in March, the Masters in April, the PGA Championship in May, the U.S. Open in June, and the Open in July, before pointing out, “There’s not really a time of year where you’re taking a break for us until after the Presidents Cup or the Ryder Cup.” Every year, one of the two biennial tournaments takes place in September after the end of the PGA Tour regular season.

Nevertheless, the current world No. 1 golfer expressed his grit and determination to keep on playing at the TOUR Championship even if met with health concerns. “It definitely is a little bit of a sprint, and I’m sure people got little aches and pains,” said Scheffler, “But didn’t play all year to just get tired at East Lake and kind of just throw in the towel.” A similar attitude can be seen in Matsuyama as well as he tries to tee off at the event despite not being “100%” healthy.

A ‘Scottie Scheffler’ like mindset by Hideki Matsuyama

“Hideki’s back is not 100% but he intends to play this week,” reported Todd Lewis, a reporter at Golf Channel and NBC, as he shared an update on the Japanese golfer’s health. What’s more, he also wrote on X how Matsuyama will start the weekend at T3 with a score of 7-under as per the rules of the 2024 TOUR Championship.

The golfer had, last week, pulled out of the BMW Championship after scoring a first-round figure of 5-under 67 owing to discomfort in the back. He put up the score after dishing out six birdies and a bogey on August 22, Thursday at the par-72, 8130-yard course in Castle Rock. Now, fast forward a week and he will hope to finish it big at the FedEx Cup finale at East Lake Golf Club. But will he be able to do it? His fans would hope so since they would surely agree with Scottie Scheffler’s words, “It’s good competition… I think the golf course is going to be pretty challenging, and it should be a fun week.”