Perspective from the World's Best Golfer

One of my favorite athletes to follow in sports is golfer Scottie Scheffler. He has had incredible success the last few years but always remains grounded mostly because of his family and his faith. This week, in the midst of one of the biggest tournaments in golf—the British Open—he stepped into a press conference and offered something we don’t always hear from athletes at the top of their game and something that has been widely supported across the sports world:

Perspective.

When Scottie was asked about pressure, performance, and the expectations placed on him, he didn’t talk about swing mechanics or mental toughness. He talked about who he is beyond golf. “Golf is something I do. It’s not who I am. My identity is not in my golf score.”

That line hit me. It’s so easy to attach our worth to what we do—our wins, our titles, our success. I spent much of the early years in my career taking every loss in an activity so hard because of how it made me look and how I thought people would perceive me. It would sometime take days to recover from losses and this was especially true with end of season losses that ended up short of a state championship-something that happened in every sport I coached except one!

But Scheffler reminded everyone that success isn’t the whole story. Who you are when the cameras aren’t following you, when the scoreboard says you lost, when your job title or life status changes—that’s what truly matters.

So What We Can Learn from Scottie Scheffler

Whether you're coaching a team, leading a group, or simply trying to be a better version of yourself, there are a few of my takeaways from the world’s #1 golfer:

1. Identity Should Go Deeper than Achievement

Your role might be “Coach,” “Parent,” “Leader,” or “Athlete”—but those are just titles. A key point from Scheffler is that we don’t confuse what we do with who we are. When your identity is rooted deeper—in your values, your faith, your relationships—you can weather any result. How do we act when no one is watching? How do we treat those we interact with? How do we deal with adversity? All of these things are more important aspects of our identity than our achievements.

2. Perspective Protects You from Pressure

Scheffler acknowledged that he loves to compete and wants to win—but he also recognized that golf is temporary. That mindset doesn’t make him less competitive. It gives him the freedom to play loose, focus better, and not unravel when things go sideways.
Pressure shrinks when your perspective on what an event truly means grows.

This is an area I feel I improved on during my coaching career and hope to continue as I restart my coaching. I am probably as competitive as anyone when it comes to wanting to win, but as a coach, making that the only thing that matters sets everyone-especially your team-up for failure. It’s more important to value the process of learning along with building relationships with those you work with than it is the number of wins and losses you have.

Throughout my career, I always dreamed about winning a state championship and thinking that would be the pinnacle of my career. I finally won one in 2016 and did it change my life in any big fashion….not really. Let me state that it was an incredible experience but it did not change life after that and after a short time, it was time to move on to the next season! It was more about how it positively influenced the players, families, and coaches than what it did to me.

3. Success Isn’t the Only Score That Matters

In the coaching world (and in life), we measure a lot—wins, rankings, accolades. But the most meaningful scorecard is often invisible: Did I treat people well? Did I grow today? Did I live with purpose, and not just chase performance?

Scottie Scheffler isn’t just a great golfer—he’s a grounded one. And that’s what makes his message so powerful. The game, the job, the title—they’re all temporary. Who you are is what lasts. At some point, we are all going to see our lives end and what will people say about us when we are gone? I doubt it will be how many wins and losses we had or the titles that we had…

As you head into this week, I hope you can step back and reflect on these three questions:

• Where is your identity anchored?

• What scoreboard are you using to measure your success?

• Are you leading from pressure… or from purpose?

Let’s all keep growing—on the court, with our jobs, in our relationships, and most importantly, in who we are. Have a great week!

Coach K