Winged intruder can’t stop Scottie Scheffler’s attack: “I didn’t kill him”

Stone-faced world number one Scottie Scheffler is unperturbed by anything on the golf course, as he showed at this week's FedEx St. Jude Championship, where he is back in contention, or by winged beasts trying to interrupt his stellar play, as we saw on Friday at TPC Southwind.

At the par-4 16th hole, Scheffler, who was bogey-free in his second round, was preparing for his approach shot when he suddenly paused, breaking his routine, his attention seemingly focused on something other than the $3.6 million winner's check he is playing for this week.

“It was some kind of bug,” Scheffler explained in a press conference after his round, referring to the distraction that awaited him on hole 16. “I don't know exactly what it was, but it had wings, so I was able to kind of grab it and just push it away.”

During the summer, it is common on golf courses around the world for an insect to disrupt a golfer's round by landing on a golf ball. However, such insects can usually be eliminated with a simple wave of the hand, as viewers see weekly on the PGA Tour television broadcasts.

Why Scheffler took this to the next level is another question.

“It was entertaining because I grabbed both wings very gently. I was able to pull it away from the ball and it tried to flap as I held it by the wings so you could kind of feel it moving,” Scheffler continued. “I just wanted to make sure I pushed it away from my ball so it didn't fall back on my ball.”

When asked further, Scheffler assured everyone that he “didn't kill it.” He also offered an explanation as to why he didn't just end the potential threat the old-fashioned way.

“I didn't think I could catch it, and when I did, I thought I wasn't going to kill it now that I caught it,” Scheffler said Friday. “So I just let it fly away.”

Scheffler's scorecard shows that this moment did not faze him. He finished the 16th hole with a birdie and followed it up with another on the 17th, his third red in a row.

Scheffler will be trying to catch something else on Saturday: the leaders. His brilliant five-under-par finish on Friday put him within two strokes of the two leaders, Denny McCarthy and Hideki Matsuyama.

Just as he did a few weeks ago during his gold medal quest at the Paris Olympics, Scheffler has put himself in a good position for the weekend to pursue his seventh PGA Tour victory of the year and further cement his place at the top of the FedEx Cup standings.

Kevin Cunningham

Golf.com Publisher

As GOLF.com's senior producer, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes articles on GOLF.com and manages the brand's e-newsletters, which reach more than 1.4 million subscribers each month. As a former intern, he also keeps GOLF.com running beyond the breaking news and service content from our reporters and writers, and works with the technical team to develop new products and innovative ways to provide an engaging website for our audience.