Scottie Scheffler Reveals Surprising Move to Combat ‘Distractions’, Echoing Tiger Woods’ Frustration

If you are a professional golf player, how focused do you have to be? What is the cost of the greatness that you are trying to achieve? Tiger Woods and Scottie Scheffler know part of the answer. The hosts of the Fore Play podcast Trent, Riggs, and Frankie Borelli were shooting a challenge video with Scottie Scheffler, in which he plays with Trent’s clubs. Before the shoot started, discussions had happened on the podcast about Scottie ignoring Frankie Borelli’s texts. They reasoned that it could be because the current World No.1 had changed his number.

It was a testy matter to bring up, but Borelli finally got the courage and asked Scottie if he had changed his number while they were on the cart on their way to the first tee spot. Scottie’s answer was pretty straightforward and a relief to Borelli. “Yeah I did,” the World No.1 said. He went on to explain why he changed his number. “I was getting a lot of texts when I was at tournaments.”

One of Scottie’s friends had used two phones to prevent distractions during the tournament, and Scottie actually liked the concept. He proceeded to do the same. “My buddy Sam had two phones, one for tournament and one for not a tournament. I was like that’s actually a pretty good idea. I don’t like getting a bunch of texts at tournaments just because it is distracting.”

He got his phone, and it immediately showed good results as Scottie won his first major with the new two-phone concept. Ever since the change, Scottie has been riding a wave of success claiming 10 PGA Tour victories and an Olympic gold over the next two and a half years. “I think it was before the Masters in ’22, that I got another phone and I started using that when I was at tournaments.” His new phone had only five contacts which were his wife, Meredith, his coach, his trainer, and his parents.

Over time, the second phone became his only phone, which resulted in the other number being used by someone else, a random stranger in Dallas, who, in this case, actually received Borelli’s texts. “I was like that this is kind of nice. And I just eventually changed over to that phone.”

A golfer being averse to the usage of cell phones is not new. Even Tiger Woods had commented on it during the 2019 Masters, a tournament known for its famed no cell phone policy.

Tiger Woods likes the Masters because of their cell phone policy

At the Augusta National, cell phones are strictly prohibited. In fact, any device used to record and transmit voice, video, or data is not allowed. That includes laptops and tablets as well. Tiger Woods was asked about this before the 2019 Masters Tournament. He had a short answer, chirping happily and quickly, “It’s nice, isn’t it?”

He went on to explain that the cellphones have a tendency to be loud when used in a clutter.“ We don’t mind you taking pictures. We don’t mind you videoing it while we’re playing. Just please put it on silent. It took a number of years for, you know, most people to figure that out, but now it’s not really that bad,” Woods added.

And that’s what makes the Masters Tournament stand out amongst other events. People around the course are concentrating on one thing and only one thing: the golf that is on display. Entertainment at its purest. The 15-time Major winner explained, “This event is so different, and is so unique. It’s pure golf. You know, it’s just player and caddie out there playing. We’re prepping together and there’s no other distractions inside the ropes.” Woods is so vehemently against too much usage of the phone that he even chastised his son, Charlie Woods, publicly for spending too much time on his device.

What do you think of the phone policy at Masters? Are cell phones a necessary evil as they allow you to capture a moment in time as a memory? Or do you think they get overused unapologetically?