An ill-fated moment for Scottie Scheffler at the last second? As the BMW Championship kicked off on Thursday, the World No. 1 entered the field with a 1496-point lead ahead of Xander Schauffele in the standings, aiming for his first FedEx Cup win. The two teed off together at 11:00 a.m. EDT.

However, as Scheffler entered the 17th hole and made an attempt to hit his second shot, he was spotted touching his lower back with his left hand and bending over in discomfort. NUCLR Golf took to their official X account and shared a snippet of the incident. They reported, “#INJURY ALERT — It appears world #1 Scottie Scheffler may have tweaked his back during round 1 of the BMW Championship.”

However, as the speculation about his back injury spread, the 28-year-old shut down all the concerns during the post-round presser. He assumed that he had hit one too many balls at the practice round, because of which he woke up with a sore back on Thursday.

He was pretty confident that some ice would do the trick before Friday’s round. Just a few hours after posting the incident, event NUCLR Golf followed up with another tweet, “#UPDATE: Post round, Scottie Scheffler says he woke up with a sore back Thursday morning. He added that he didn’t tweak it during round 1 and expects his back to be fine,” in the comments section.

The pain did take its toll on the American pro, leading to two bogeys on the 14th and 15th holes and finishing the round with a T15, tied with six other players. Given the amazing season that the No. 1 player has had this year, most of the people in the golf community are rooting for him. Seeing him injured at the last moment has left his fans concerned about what might happen.

The golf community share their concerns over Scottie Scheffler’s recent injury

Xander Schauffele, who is currently at No. 2 in the standings, had a pretty average opening round at Castle Pines. He ended the round with four birdies and a bogey on the 13th hole. While teeing off, Scheffler’s stiff back did not go unnoticed by World No. 2.

During the post-round presser, Schauffele lightened the tense mood by humorously suggesting that the stiffness could be a good omen for Scheffler—though perhaps not for the other 69 players. The two-time major winner recalled a similar instance when the World No. 1 needed neck treatment at The PLAYERS Championship and still went on to win the event.

The words of the 30-year-old could not soothe the minds of the fans, as one commented, “All that strain from carrying the sport.”

Indeed, Scottie Scheffler has had an eventful year with six wins on the Tour, followed by his recent win at the 2024 Olympics. To top all that, Scheffler also crossed the 100-week mark as the World’s No. 1 on the OWGR rankings.

Golf requires significant arm strength, as players repeatedly swing their clubs to hit the ball. According to a study in the Asian Journal of Sports Medicine(2014), lower back pain in golfers accounts for between 18% and 54% of all documented ailments. This makes it the most common injury. A lot of people also addressed this and shared their experiences and opinions on the matter.

One netizen shared their recent experience with similar pain and commented, “I have seen and felt this recently. Played six holes when this happened. Determined to be a L4/L5 disc compression. Just had a laminectomy last Tuesday and what a relief. Best of luck to Scottie. hope it is not serious”, hoping for a speedy recovery for him. Another fan advised seeking medical attention promptly, as such injuries could have lasting impacts, they wrote, “He should get an MRI ASAP, could be a disc injury, as opposed to a muscle strain, and you don’t mess with those”.

Scottie Scheffler might get his hands on the FedEx Cup trophy if he is able to maintain his lead. Scheffler’s history at the FedEx Cup Playoffs has not been the best. Taking to this, one of them, sending out assertive prayers, simply said, “That’s not good…let’s hope he can hang in there”.

Scottie Scheffler and his wife, Meredith, welcomed their first son on May 8. One fan speculated that balancing parenthood and the demands of professional golf could further add to the physical strain and stated, “Once you become a father, then comes the back pain. I’m not explaining it any more than that.”

Tiger  Woods is one golfer who is no stranger to injuries. The 48-year-old met with an accident on February 23, 2021, which gave him life-threatening injuries. This altered his professional career forever. Mr. T has not been able to make it to the course very often. To add to the miseries, he has been either landing himself at the bottom of the leaderboard or missing the cuts. One of the user chose to draw parallels between Mr. T and Scheffler and said, “Tiger 2.0 🐅”.

Do you think Scheffler will be able to come back all recovered for the Friday round? Or are there chances that he might have to make his first withdrawal of the season? Stay tuned to find out what happens in just a few hours!