Luke Clanton can vividly describe one of the first moments he met Scottie Scheffler.
It was at the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina. Clanton advanced via qualifying to his first U.S. Open, and he got to play with Scheffler during a Tuesday practice round. Clanton and his caddie arrived to the tee about 20 minutes early, and not a lot of people were around.
“We were so nervous to play with him,” Clanton recalled Wednesday at a pre-tournament press conference ahead of the 2025 WM Phoenix Open.
And then he arrived, Scheffler’s aura marking his presence ahead of the year’s third major.
“He looked like a video game character to me, honestly,” Clanton said. “And to see thousands of people start lining up the fairway … he was like, ‘oh, you can go first.’ I said, ‘all right.’ I put down the tee, and I just whacked it as hard as I could just to get it down there.”
Clanton has grown accustomed to large crowds of his own in recent months, becoming one of the best stories in golf. The top-ranked amateur in the world is a showman himself, but he’ll face some of the biggest — and rowdiest — crowds yet this week at TPC Scottsdale in a week that could shape his future.
On Wednesday, Clanton earned his 19th point in PGA Tour University Accelerated, a program that awards direct access to the Tour for top collegiate amateurs, thanks to his No. 1 WAGR ranking for 26 total weeks. He enters the WM Phoenix Open a made cut away from earning point No. 20, which would earn him a PGA Tour card, which he can accept following the conclusion of his junior season at Florida State this spring.
“I think I’m going to kind of approach it the same I’ve approached it basically the last eight months,” Clanton said. “Just kind of go out there and play the best I can. It’s kind of a boring answer to say. I know everyone wants me to say something different. But to kind of keep that mentality and keep going and keep pushing forward.”
Clanton’s rise has been meteoric. He entered last summer with no PGA Tour U Accelerated points, but he started dominating PGA Tour events, including a pair of runner-up finishes, to compile points.
As an amateur, he has risen inside the top 100 of the Official World Golf Ranking. And Clanton gives that 9-hole practice round with Scheffler a lot of credit for his rise.
“We were walking down 16 (at Pinehurst) and I asked him, I said, ‘how do you deal with adversity, the temptations,’ because he’s close with his faith and so am I. He kind of looked at me and he goes, get about three to five minutes of enjoyable time after a win and then you go right back into the zone. Golf you’re always chasing more and more and more, to realize golf is not everything in your life and you’ve got a lot more to it.
“It’s been an incredible journey in my faith over the last eight months because of that one answer for me.
“He’s an idol to me, and I always looked up to him, and to see what he’s doing and how he’s kind of talking about his faith all the time has been incredible.”
Scheffler, who won the WM Phoenix Open in 2022 and 2023, raved about Clanton during his press conference on Wednesday, joking that he didn’t even know whether Clanton was still in school.
“He’s played great golf and definitely deserves to get his card, so I hope that he plays good this week and locks it up and goes back and does his thing in school,” Scheffler said. “As far as him thinking of me as a role model, I’m here to help with what I can, but at the end of the day I try to come out here and play golf, and if the younger guys have some questions for me, I’m more than happy to answer them.
“It can be a challenging thing coming out here and navigating life on the PGA Tour. It’s a lot different than college golf. But these young guys are coming out so prepared now — you look at a guy like Nick Dunlap winning so early, winning twice last year in his rookie year on Tour is pretty special, and then there’s a lot of young guys coming up with a lot of talent, Luke being one of them. So looking forward to getting to compete with those guys as they come out on Tour.”
Clanton will tee it up in the first two rounds alongside Dunlap and Justin Thomas. When Clanton teed it up at the U.S. Open, he was a rising star still making a name for himself. This week, fans will show up at the People’s Open to follow him, including in golf’s rowdiest arena.
Clanton said he’ll likely take 10 yards off when choosing a club the first time he goes into 16 this week, thanks to the added excitement and adrenaline of the hole.
“I love giving the crowd a good show,” Clanton said.
And the crowds love Clanton, a player who’s likely to be a force on the Tour for years to come.
“We train to get our card. We train to be out here. We train to play with the best,” Clanton said. “Again, it would be amazing, but I’m going to try not to think about that too much. I know everyone is worrying about it, but I’m just excited to be out here. I’m excited to be in this event.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Luke Clanton’s chase for PGA Tour card aided by Scottie Scheffler
