Skip Bayless ‘Jolted and Jarred’ by Scottie Scheffler Saying He Prioritizes Family Over Golf

Skip Bayless couldn’t believe that professional Scottie Scheffler prioritized his family over being the best player in the world.

At the Open Championship in Northern Ireland, Scheffler — the world’s no. 1 golfer — went viral for a clip in which he divulged his perspective on reaching the pinnacle of his life’s work. Simply put, he admitted that while it is fulfilling in some sense, it pales in comparison to being a great father and a great husband for his family.

On Friday’s episode of The Skip Bayless Show, Bayless revealed that he’d always approached life with the exact opposite mindset. According to him, he was “called by God to be the very best truth-telling commentator and writer” he could be. In order to achieve this, however, everything else in his life had to come second.

Bayless couldn’t fathom why someone as great as Scheffler wouldn’t have the same mindset:

I have no idea if [Tiger Woods] or [Michael Jordan] or Tom Brady have a spiritual side because I’ve never heard them talk about God — not that I can remember. All three were just obsessed with winning. They couldn’t wait to win again, and again, and again until their bodies finally just gave out because each of these three believed they were born to dominate. Nothing made them happier than dominating.

So it was that I was jolted and jarred by what Scottie Scheffler said on the eve of the British Open. No, Scottie, no! God gave you spectacular ability to play the world’s hardest game, gave you the strongest competitive drive since Tiger, gave you what what Jack Nicklaud had, what Ben Hogan had; and you can’t just shrug it off at at age 29 and focus on, as you said, being a better father than a golfer. You can’t do that, Scottie. No! God wants you to maximize the platform from which you can honor him, and encourage fans to open their hearts to him, to God. That’s what God has led or called you to do, Scottie — not to focus on your wife and infant son before you’re 30.