Long before Ted Scott took the bag of Scottie Scheffler in 2021, he caddied for current LIV Golf star and two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson.
Scott was on Watson’s bag for both of his Masters wins in 2012 and 2014, and he has been Scheffler’s caddie for all four of his major championship triumphs.
So the experienced caddie has seen it all at the very highest level of the game.
Watson may not be a massive name in the golfing landscape now, but his success over the past 15 years can be matched by few.
He has won two majors and 12 PGA Tour titles. Meanwhile, Scheffler has been the dominant figure in the game for four years now, with 20 PGA Tour wins to his name, including four majors.
Ted Scott’s know-how and composure when things get tough has helped the two players immensely through both of their journeys.
And it’s not just on the golf course where Scott has leant a helping hand to his bosses.
What happened to Bubba Watson after The Masters in 2012
Watson’s golf career, and indeed his life, completely changed when he won a major championship for the first time at Augusta National 14 years ago.
He went on to win The Masters again in 2014, and that led to a conversation with his trusted bagsman, Ted Scott.
As an interesting side note, Watson was the last man to win The Masters without having played in at least one of the two tournaments in the build-up to Augusta National.
Scott has been speaking to GOLF.com about his journey in the game of golf and he shared a wonderful anecdote about something that Watson told him after his second Masters victory.
“My number one message that I try to put out, and I learned this from Bubba Watson,“ Scott said.
“He called me two weeks after he won the Masters the second time. And he said to me these exact words. I picked up the phone. I said, ‘Hello.’ And he said, ‘What’s the point?’ I said, ‘Bubba?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, what’s the point?’ ‘In what?’ He goes, ‘Winning the Masters. What’s the point?’ And so I had to think about that question.
“What is the point? You know, and what was Bubba saying? Why was he saying that to me? He just won the Masters the second time. But you see what the average person doesn’t realise is when Bubba won the Masters in 2012, there was all kinds of stress and expectations that came after that. That’s scary.
“It’s like a wave of people wanting and needing. And you’re going to do this and that. And you better or not, give me this. And money. And it’s like, oh, man. So he went through that whole experience.
“And then you realise at the end of all that stuff, you’re like, man, I still got the same itch. If you think the big house, the fancy car, the winning the trophies, the pretty girl, all that stuff is going to satisfy you. It’s not.“
That is so brilliantly put by Scott and it’s little wonder why he is such an exceptional caddie.
Similarities between Bubba Watson and Scottie Scheffler
The world number one received a mixed reception after his comments on lacking genuine fulfilment through winning golf tournaments ahead of The Open Championship last year.
However, Ted Scott has now perfectly explained exactly what Scheffler meant by those comments.
“The more they (fans) will criticise you, the more voices there are to deal with,“ Scott began.
“So then when Scottie came out and said, ‘I don’t know why I want to win this so bad’. There’s a lot of people that make it to what they thought was going to fulfil them in life.
“And then you get there and all of a sudden you get to number one in the world. And then they’re like, what’s the point? And, you know, I really do believe that because, you know, what is the point? You know, that was his fourth major that he ended up winning. He’d already won three majors.
“And he’s saying two minutes later, this doesn’t satisfy. And then he says, ‘but I don’t know why I want to win this so bad’. OK, well, I think my friend Jim Murphy that wrote the book, Inner Excellence, knows why we want to win so bad.
“What we really want is to feel alive and present. That’s what he says. So I explain it to people like this. Why do we get on a roller coaster? Why? People are scared of them. Because as that thing is going tick, tick, tick, and that roller coaster is about to drop right as you’re going over the edge. Does your mom have cancer at that moment? No.
“Does your house, you know, roof have a leak? No. Has your kid, you know, quit school and making bad decisions? No. None of that stuff happens. You’re very alive and present. You are so present that nothing else matters but that moment. Then the ride’s over.
“What do you have to do to get back to that moment? Get on the ride again. The reason we love sports, we love a close game. We love the Super Bowl. We love watching the Masters. We love when it gets tight and coming. What’s going to happen removes all the stuff that we’re dealing with in life.
“And we’re very alive and present. So that’s really what we love. And at the end of the day, that doesn’t satisfy. Just like riding a roller coaster doesn’t satisfy all those things that I said you forget about momentarily. So that’s the message that I’m trying to get out. Because it’s super fun to compete.
“And I love competition. It’s so fun. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t define me. You know, being on the bag for Scottie Scheffler is a blessing for sure. There’s a tremendous blessing that comes from it. But man, I can promise you I still got problems.
“I still got the same problems with or without those experiences. So you just have to enjoy it, be grateful for it. But at the end of the day, don’t live for it.“