Scottie Scheffler details freak injury to his hand while making ravioli

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — When Rory McIlroy heard the news that Scottie Scheffler injured his right hand on a wine glass on Christmas that eventually required surgery, he naturally was concerned for Scheffler’s well-being but then his mind shifted to another thought.

“I think he made enough money to hire a chef. It's like why are you cooking yourself?” McIlroy said on Tuesday during his pre-tournament press conference ahead of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. “Yeah, get a chef.”

Scheffler chuckled when he was told what McIlroy had said. “I've got a chef, her name's Meredith. She's pretty cute,” he joked, referencing his wife and the mother of their young son, Bennett.

Scheffler finally filled in the mysterious details of how shards of glass ended up needing to be removed from his hand from a freak accident that occurred while making ravioli from scratch.

“You've got to roll the dough and you've got to cut the dough, but we were at a rental house so we didn't have like the right tools and the only thing there was a wine glass that we found,” he explained. “I had my hand on top of it and it broke, which side note, I've heard nothing but horror stories since this happened about wine glasses, so be careful. Even if you're like me and you don't drink wine, you've got to be real careful with wine glasses.

“Yeah, it broke and the stem kind of got me in the hand. So it's one of those deals where like it's truly — I can't live in a bubble, like got to live my life and accidents happen. You know, it could have been a lot worse.”

Scheffler said he was bleeding near the middle of the upper part of his palm in front of the middle finger. A friend at home who is a surgeon rushed over to the rental house and helped stop the bleeding.

“When stuff like that happens in the moment, fear is usually the first thing your mind goes to so you think all kinds of crazy thoughts,” he said. “I was able to get home the next day and get proper treatment…It wasn’t too stressful for too long."

Scheffler had surgery the next day.

“He did a great job," he said of the surgeon, "I was able to heal pretty quickly.”

But not before he missed The Sentry and The American Express earlier this month. Even last week, he was on the fence whether he would be able to return this week at Pebble Beach.

“I wanted to push myself pretty hard at home to make sure I wouldn't have a flareup here on the road if that makes sense,” he said. “Tried to work out some of that soreness and the scar tissue and stuff that goes in there after surgery. So I tried to push myself pretty hard in the cold last week and it continued to get better and better each day. So figured I might as well come back out and start playing.”

Scheffler said it was frustrating to watch golf on TV. He took a two-month break after the Tour Championship in August and didn’t miss a beat, winning the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas in December. On Monday, the world No. 1 played with his caddie, Ted Scott, at Cypress Point Golf Club, ranked No. 1 in Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses, and stood 6 under through six holes. If that’s any indication of the state of his game, Scheffler should be just fine. “I cooled down after that,” he said, adding, “I took down Ted, so I got bragging rights for a while. Can't afford to lose to your caddie because he's just going to be reminding me that he beat me constantly so I was glad to take him down.”

Scheffler teed off on Tuesday at Pebble Beach alongside his pal, Sam Burns, and prepped for this week’s 80-man signature event, and said he's pain-free.

"So, it’s all good,” he said.

Asked whether he had any concerns the hand injury could be a problem down the road, he said, “No, not at all.”

In case anyone was wondering, Scheffler confirmed he still got to enjoy the ravioli he was making when he was injured.

“They were good,” he said. “They weren't that good, but they were pretty good.”

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Scottie Scheffler returns after surgery on his hand at Pebble Beach