HOUSTON — The seriousness of the encounter depends on who tells the story.
Scottie Scheffler and Beau Hossler almost came to blows on the golf course when they were teammates in college. On a podcast appearance a couple months ago, Longhorns’ coach John Fields said it would’ve been a “battle of the titans.”
Scheffler is now the No. 1 golfer in the world and sits at 5-under 65 and T-2 after the morning wave of the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course. Hossler, who is searching for his first Tour victory, opened with a 4-under performance.
Following their rounds, they both recalled the events of that day, and Hossler said his former coach may have deflated the situation.
In the spring of 2015, Texas was playing at a one-day event in Lubbock, with then-junior Hossler and freshman Scheffler paired together for the morning and afternoon sessions.
“We were playing this mess-around tournament before the regional,” Hossler said. “Basically, we were both playing a match. I wasn’t playing him, I was playing a New Mexico kid and he was playing a New Mexico kid. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Lubbock, but it’s very, very, very windy.
“I hit one on the water on 18, which was the ninth hole. You couldn’t even — it was so windy you couldn’t hear each other from however far apart, so
I didn’t even like announce what ball I was playing but I just hit. Two holes later, No. 2 is kind of this blind par-5 I think. We both hit it down the middle and whatever. I walked past the first ball, I walked to the second ball, it’s 10 yards in front. He hits the ball in the back and then I realized that that was not my ball that I was standing next to. We had different markings, but we both were playing a Titleist whatever, 3 with a Longhorn on it. One had a marking, and mine didn’t.”
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Added Fields on the podcast: “You would’ve thought Mount Vesuvius just went off, like we had a volcano 15 yards below us. Scheffler got so mad when he figured out that he’d hit the wrong ball, he ran up to the green, 260 yards on a dead sprint, picked up the ball, ran back, and threw it at Beau’s feet. Beau goes ahead and hits the right shot, and Scottie has lost the hole now. He’d just lost a hole, but it’s killing him. And now, they’re jawing against each other on the way up (to the green), and finally on the next hole, on the par-3, I told Beau, ‘We are not going another step farther until you apologize to Scottie for that.’”
Hossler told his coach he didn’t think he needed to apologize.
“He wasn’t happy,” Hossler said of Scheffler. “I was like, ‘Well, listen, you’re the one who hit the wrong ball.’ I understand like it’s not a — but like you hit it, I didn’t. And it was a bad deal. It didn’t mean anything, but it was just — we’re really competitive, both of us. That was the really cool part about our golf team at Texas, it was like every player on the team was like either a very good player or a pretty good player that was very competitive. We wanted to kick each other’s ass all the time.”
“I don’t blame him for not being happy about it. I still think it was his fault, he’s the only one who hit the wrong ball. I agree I should have checked closer that it was — that that was actually my ball, but one way or the other it’s a good story. The good part about friends usually is that lasted — he was pissed off and I was pissed off for about two hours and once we got on the plane home, it was OK.”
Scottie Scheffler chips on the first green in the first round of the Texas Children’s Houston Open golf tournament. (Photo: Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports)
Although he didn’t get as descriptive, Scheffler said he recalls the day and how Fields’ story was true.
“I’d love to hear Beau’s side because we do like talking about it,” Scheffler said. “It was just one of those moments where we had been around each other I think for so long and you’re in the heat of the moment, you’re out there competing and something happens. Yeah, it’s pretty funny to look back on though, we get a good kick out of it.
“At the time we both played Titleist balls, and I had been playing the same number the whole day and he had a different number and switched unknown to me. Just one of those deals. When you’re around each other that much, stuff like that, mistakes happen.”
Texas made match play at the NCAA Championship that season, and the next year Hossler went on to win the Haskins Award. However, as Fields and Hossler. mentioned, it was two competitors going at it in the heat of the moment.
Beau Hossler of the United States hits a tee shot on the 12th hole during the first round of the Texas Children’s Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course on March 28, 2024 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images)
“Scottie’s one of my really good friends,” Hossler said. “We’ve had so many … we’ve grown up literally since we were probably 10 and 9 years old together, he’s only a year behind me. We played a couple years at Texas, but we grew up playing the same tournaments and now we’ve been out here on Tour together. He’s the best. He’s obviously having tremendous success, I’m happy for him. It’s a good story.
“But no, Coach Fields didn’t exaggerate.”