Scottie Scheffler is witty, Jordan Spieth says.
And when you’re witty, one activity comes as easy as Scheffler’s swing.
“He s**t-talks,” Spieth said.
“You can’t really go at him because he’s smart, and he’s got good bulls**t.”
And prolific with it, it seems. It came out Sunday, in fact.
At Royal Portrush. During the final round of the Open Championship.
As he was chasing down major win number four.
Banter, it seems, takes no holidays, and Haotong Li, Scheffler’s playing partner, was his foil. Throughout the round, TV cameras spotted Scheffler and LI laughing, and afterward, Li was asked about the experience of the round.
“It was actually super calm, and he’s such a lovely guy to play with,” Li said. “We did a joke about each other a little bit and just so nice to play with him.”
Oh really? Care to share one of the cracks?
Li had one.
“I just said, is there any time I can practice with you when I go to the PGA Tour, and he said yes,” Li said. “But I said, when I text you, you better reply to me.”
Here came the punchline.
“And he goes, ‘Haotong Who?’” Li said. “That was actually funny. Just a lovely guy to play with, and I enjoyed.”
There was more to his week, of course. While Scheffler went on to win, Li finished tied for fourth, his second-best finish in a major (he tied for third at the Open in 2017), and it unlocked a spot in next year’s Masters. The 29-year-old from China will also likely move up in the world rankings (he’s currently 111th), and he also improved his position in the DP World Tour season-long standings, from eighth to third — and the top 10 finishers earn PGA Tour cards for next year.
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All of it’s also a long way from a short stretch where he quit, which Li had admitted he’d done after a win in 2022. After turning pro at 16, he’d won twice on the DP World Tour to that point and made the 2019 Presidents Cup International team, but he felt he was struggling.
This year, he won again on the DP World Tour, and in a post-round interview, he started to tear up.
“Yeah, I’m going to celebrate this one nicely,” he said after a pause.
And there he was Sunday. Li said his driving frustrated him; he lost strokes to the field both off the tee and on the greens during the final round. Still, he said he’ll leave Northern Ireland upbeat.
And with a phone number.
And a joke.
“Because my tee shot being so off today, I kind of — just something I need to really working on that,” Li said. “Yeah, but just happy to finish like this.”
