SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER is the painful reason he did not challenge the leaders in this year’s Open Championship.
26-year-old PGA Tour star finished joint-21st at St Andrews, after carding an error-strewn final round of two-over par.
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Scheffler won 2022 Masters, and is currently ranked No1 in the world.
He was among the top players in Scotland up to the weekend’s play but he lost his lead in the last two days.
Scheffler was clearly uncomfortable during his weekend rounds where he shot an unusual six bogeys.
The Dallas native has now revealed the true reason he was so off the Old Course.
He told Golf.com: “You know, I really wasn’t playing bad. I did well at the Open.
“It was a little thing I had to do with an injury that stopped me from playing on Saturday and Sunday.
“If not for that, I would have felt like I had a really good chance to win the tournament.”
Scheffler proceeded to disclose the exact cause of the problem, which was clearly too much.
He continued: “Probably TMI, but I had what’s called a pilonidal infection. It’s an infection at the top of your butt crack.
“You can look it up. It was extremely difficult for me not to bend down.
“It was very difficult for me to swing on Sunday. Walking was really difficult.
“[It was]Excruciatingly painful. I’m not going to say [how it got sorted].
“I’ll tell you after because that would really be TMI!”
Scheffler recovered from the illness within a week. Scheffler is looking great at the Tour Championship in Atlanta.
He leads the tournament by five strokes over nearest challenger Xander Schaffele going into Friday’s play.