Scottie Scheffler revved up for this week’s Cadillac Championship by playing in a pro-am group with Formula 1 drivers Valtteri Bottas and Sergio “Checo” Perez.
“It was fun. I got to talk with Checo a little bit about some different stuff, and kind of how they prepare for events,” Scheffler said. “I’m not — I don’t know a ton about the Formula 1 — but it was really interesting to hear things from his perspective about how he prepares for events, and what the week looks like for them.”
Scheffler is in the driver’s seat as the fifth Signature Event of the 2026 PGA Tour season begins on Thursday at Trump National Doral’s fabled Blue Monster Course in Miami. Doral returns to the schedule after hosting tour events for more than 50 years from 1962-2016.
Scheffler, 29, who turned pro in 2018, played the nearly 7,800-yard course for the first time with nine holes Tuesday and nine more on Wednesday.
“Felt like the rumors about the course were true,” he said. “It’s long, it’s difficult. Should be a good test this week.”
The World No. 1 is coming off back-to-back runner-up efforts this month, following his second-place finish at the Masters with a playoff loss to Matt Fitzpatrick at the RBC Heritage.
“Sometimes the bounces go your way and other times they don’t go your way and that’s not necessarily the whole gist of it,” Scheffler said of his recent run of success. “But sometimes you’re able to build some positive momentum, and I think at times in my career I’ve been able to really feed off of that.”
Scheffler didn’t sound too intimidated after his first look at the Blue Monster.
“This course in particular is pretty straightforward in a sense of like you can see off the tee box where you need to hit it. It’s just a matter of hitting it there time and time again,” he said. “There’s not really many tricks to this golf course. It’s just very, very difficult. It’s a flat piece of land. There’s just a lot of bunkers, a lot of water and the golf holes are long. So with that combination, it’s going to be tough.”
Playing a round with the Cadillac F1 team gave Scheffler a chance to talk shop and gain insight as he seeks his 21st career PGA Tour win this week in South Florida.
“When I see somebody like Checo who has made, who has had such a successful career in F1 and in his sport and made it to the top of his sport, like that’s something that’s really interesting just to talk to somebody about to see their mentality, to see how they approach things, what they do,” Scheffler said.
“Like today we were talking about cardio for a bit today. Like that stuff just interests me. I like seeing what makes people tick. I like learning from them. I feel like you can be, shoot, learning all the time, no matter who it is. I think there’s always something to be learned.”
