PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Sporting a small, barely visible bandage on his right palm, a well-rested Scottie Scheffler said Tuesday he’s ready for his 2025 debut at this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am after he was forced to miss two events due to a hand injury suffered while cooking over the Christmas holiday.
Scheffler, the world No. 1 coming off a historic nine-win season, played a practice round at Pebble Beach on Tuesday and bookended it with an extensive practice session in which he showed no obvious signs of rust.
“It’s a little weird making [my debut] this late in the year, but it’s good to be back. I’m definitely excited to play,” Scheffler said. “It was frustrating to be sitting at home, not being able to play golf.”
Scheffler offered details Tuesday on the hand injury, which he suffered while making homemade ravioli at a rental house over the holidays. Without a typical tool to cut the ravioli shapes out of the pasta dough, Scheffler opted to use a wine glass instead. But as he pressed down on it to cut the pasta, the glass broke and the stem cut his hand, specifically the “middle upper part” of his palm, he said.
“Immediately after it happened, I was mad at myself,” Scheffler said. “It could have been a lot worse.”
A nearby friend and surgeon helped stop the bleeding, but Scheffler said he knew something was wrong because his hand wasn’t moving much, and when it did, it hurt. Scheffler and his team contacted a surgeon who had helped him with a thumb injury 10 years ago and they were able to operate on his hand quickly and remove glass fragments from it.
The injury healed quickly, according to Scheffler, but there was still a period of time when he was unable to do anything, including work out. In lieu of practicing or playing, he decided to watch some of his rounds from 2024.
“It was good to go back and watch some speed rounds just to see how I managed my way around the course and stayed patient,” said Scheffler, who last played — and won — at the Hero World Challenge in early December. “There’s a few tournaments I looked back at where the thing that stuck out the most was that I never really overreacted to stuff. … Most of it was just reminding myself of how to kind of play tournament golf just because I’ve been off for a bit.”
Once his hand healed and he was cleared to hit balls, Scheffler ramped up his preparation. Until four days ago, it was unclear whether he would be ready to play at Pebble Beach, but thanks to a rigorous week of practice, he said he felt comfortable committing to the tournament after previously having to skip the Sentry and the American Express.
“I wanted to push myself pretty hard at home to make sure I wouldn’t have a flareup here on the road,” Scheffler said. “Tried to work out some of that soreness and the scar tissue and stuff that goes in there after surgery. I tried to push myself pretty hard in the cold last week, and it continued to get better and better each day. So figured I might as well come back out and start playing.”
On Monday, Scheffler played a full round at nearby Cypress Point Club.
He noted that he isn’t planning to replace both events he missed by adding two to his schedule, but he could add one to help him get ready for the Players Championship in March and the ensuing majors.
“Missing those two events is not fun; I enjoy playing them,” he said. “Just because I missed two I don’t want to change the flow and cadence to my schedule. If I feel like I want to add one to get some extra reps in, then I will.”