Scottie Scheffler's back in the PGA Tour winner's circle and has a hockey team to thank
Scottie Scheffler became the first player in the 50-year history of the Players Championship to repeat as champion when he edged Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman and Xander Schauffele — three of the top 10 players in the world — to take home the title at Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., on Sunday.
But while Scheffler’s play on the course, including a revamped putter, was to be commended, so too was the work behind the scenes by a team that kept the former Texas Longhorns star limber enough to go through his routines en route to his eighth PGA Tour victory. And some of it included staff members from a certain NHL team that has its affiliate in Austin.
On Friday morning, Troy Van Biezen, the director of sports performance and science with the NHL’s Dallas Stars, received an emergency text.
It was from Marnus Marais, the South African-born physical therapist whom he handpicked to take over for “his guys,” when he stepped aside this season after 21 years of averaging more than 200 nights a year on the road to provide consistent chiropractic care to Tour pros. His “guys” have included four world No. 1s — Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and Scheffler, the latter three of whom he passed on to Marais.
The reigning world No. 1 had just finished receiving treatment from Marais on the course during the second round of the Players Championship for what Van Biezen termed a cervical strain to the neck with radiating pain in the right shoulder.
Marais has been working with top players for 10 years on the PGA Tour and already had an impressive stable, so Scheffler was in good hands. In fact, Marais was in a peculiar position with one of his other clients, Schauffele, being one of the tournament front-runners and eventually holding the 54-hole lead. (He finished tied for second.) But Van Biezen has worked with Scheffler since he was 14 years old, and Scheffler, Spieth, Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim still work with him and receive treatment when they are at home in Dallas.
So the message from Marais after he gave Scheffler treatment said simply: “You got the train going. I’m just trying to keep the train on the tracks.”
Van Biezen might have been busy with his day job tending to the needs of a hockey team that is among the leading contenders for this season’s Stanley Cup, but he also knows the tendencies and movement patterns of Scheffler better than anybody else so he was in regular contact with Marais.
“Scottie is a Formula One race car, and I’m the pit crew chief,” Van Biezen once said. “I’m the guy looking under the hood to see how the engine is running.”
Van Biezen said Scheffler has experienced neck pain before, but never during a tournament.
“Ever wake up with a crick in your neck? When you turn you get that pinch, right? That’s kind of what he was experiencing. It’s happened before, never during play, and we’ve always been able to resolve it fairly quickly,” Van Biezen said.
Then he gave another example of a time Scheffler showed his true grit, during the third round of last year’s British Open, despite being in pain.
“A lot of people don’t know this, but his back went out on him on the range during the British Open,” Van Biezen said. “He came to me and said, ‘I can’t even bend over to get my shoes off.’ It was cold and wet, and that didn’t help the situation. I had 19 minutes to work on him. You can mitigate things pretty quickly.”
Lewis has plenty of Solheim decisions
At the start of the 2024 season, Solheim Cup captain Stacy Lewis thought her team in September might look an awful lot like the one she took to Spain last year. Alison Lee, who finished the 2023 season white hot, was certainly on her radar. But it sounded as if she might be the only one.
Fast forward to March, and the door has opened for a number of players.
"One, I think we've got a long ways to go," Lewis told Golfweek at Chevron Championship media day. "But I do think there's going to be more shuffling than I thought. All the captains had a meeting a couple days ago, and we all kind of said that."
Georgia's Bailey Tardy won her first LPGA title Sunday in China while Sarah Schmelzel notched her second consecutive top 10. Alexa Pano, who won her first LPGA title last year in Northern Ireland, started off with a runner-up finish at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions but has struggled since, withdrawing from the HSBC in Singapore.
After the Blue Bay LPGA, Tardy jumped from 21st to 14th in the U.S. Solheim Cup standings while Schmelzel moved to 11th, just one point behind Lee.
In the Rolex Rankings, Schemzel moved up 22 spots to No. 73 while Tardy moved up 85 spots to 84th.
The U.S. team will be finalized Aug. 24 after the AIG Women's British Open at St. Andrews.
Birdies and bogeys
McGibney wins at Morris Williams: The rain made things difficult to get through, but Peter McGibney wound up in the winner’s circle at the Austin Spring Championship at Morris Williams with a round of 69.
Imagine Muny III tickets: Some tickets are still available for Sunday’s Imagine Muny III fundraiser for the effort to save Lions Municipal Golf Course. The event at ACL Live will feature Asleep at the Wheel, Larry Gatlin, Gary P. Nunn, Jimmie Vaughan and more. Tickets are available at themunyconservancy.com.
Thanks, Sergio: Austin resident Sergio Garcia is being credited with giving a boost to a campaign to save the only public golf course in a region of western Scotland. Proposals to downsize Dalmuir Municipal Golf Course from 18 holes to 12 or to shut it permanently were presented to councilors, but a campaign of celebrities, including Garcia, voiced their support for the course. The council decided against changing the current course setup.
Tim Schmitt is the managing editor for Golfweek and golf coordinator for the USA Today Network. He lives in Round Rock. Adam Schupak contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Behind former Texas star Scottie Scheffler's Players Championship win
