Why isn’t Scottie Scheffler playing at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship?

The PGA Tour continues and World No.1 Scottie Scheffler is absent for this week’s 2024 Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte. It will be the third PGA event that the 27-year-old has missed since the start of the year. He bowed out of the Zurich Classic team tournament at TPC Louisiana and excused himself from last week’s 2024 Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch.

Scheffler was originally included in the 70-player field for Wells Fargo, which tees off at 11 a.m. on Thursday and runs through to Sunday. However he withdrew from the tournament at the last minute earlier this week. At +650, Rory McIlroy is the big favorite - he returns after sitting out last week’s Byron Nelson and has his sights set on his fourth Wells Fargo Championship title. He is followed by Xander Schauffele at +900 and Wyndham Clark, who is listed +1400 - both took home the top two prizes in last year’s event.

Scheffler has won four of his last five tournaments, adding The Heritage to his second green jacket at The Masters in Augusta, which followed on from wins at The Players Championship and Arnold Palmer Invitational. He was tied second in the Texas Children’s Houston Open but opted out of the recent Zurich Classic team tournament at TPC Louisiana which saw winning pair Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry take home $1,286,050 each.

Scheffler to become a dad for the first time

The Byron Nelson was off limits too - the reason? Scheffler is expecting his first child with his wife Meredith, who is due to give birth imminently and so naturally, the father is busy on baby watch. The golfer told reporters at the Masters that he would dash straight home at a moment’s notice if his wife went into labor.

Speaking ahead of the RBC Heritage, Scheffler said: “Up until when the baby comes, I’m going to play this week and then I’ll go home and basically just wait. We’re due at the end of the month. Like I said last week, golf now is - it never was my top priority, but I do love competing, and I put in the work. It’s going to take another notch down in priority when our child comes. My family still comes first, and we’ll see how the prep work goes. As far as her going into labor, I wouldn’t say I’m very concerned, we haven’t seen any of the early signs, but pregnancy is weird and it can happen at any time. But, yeah, open lines of communication and she can get hold of me if she needs to”.

He added that nothing prepares you for fatherhood: “People have asked us how our preparation is going for the baby and it’s like... I feel like we are a little under-prepared. The nursery isn’t quite ready and we’ve had some issues at our house the last few weeks. I think that’s the exciting part. I think we are definitely under-prepared to be parents. I definitely will enjoy the birth of my first child, and my priorities will change very soon, so golf will be fourth in line, but I still love competing”. So for now, Scottie is staying by his wife’s side back home in Texas, ready for the hospital dash. There are more important things on his mind right now and there will always be next year’s Wells Fargo.