When Scottie Scheffler won the St. Jude Championship last week, it appeared he had rediscovered his dominant form heading into the final stretch of the season. However, the BMW Championship proved to be a far tougher test than anyone anticipated. He opened the tournament with a 2-over-par 72 before bouncing back with a 5-under-par 65 in the second round.

In the aftermath, Scheffler admitted that he wasn’t feeling 100 percent. Although his game improved as the week progressed, he was still dealing with the illness by Sunday.

“I got sick Monday night,” Scheffler said during Sunday’s press conference. “That was probably the most frustrating part. Like I [was] playing really good golf, and you come out of the heat and get a little adrenaline, sometimes your body kind of crashes. Then it hit me pretty good all week. I’m still not a hundred percent, but I’ll get some rest now, and hopefully that will help.”

Scheffler carded consecutive 2-under 68s in the third and final rounds to finish tied for 12th. However, after being diagnosed with hand, foot and mouth disease, Scheffler said he had been advised not to play the tournament. Scheffler began dealing with the symptoms of hand, foot, and mouth disease on Monday, just a day after his second win of the season. This led to blisters on his hands and throat, and gripping clubs at Bellerive became such a challenging task that he had to introduce changes in his workout and practice routine to get through four days of golfing.

“I got the hand, foot, mouth. So you get blisters on your hands and in your throat and on your feet,” he added. “So to start the week it was pretty painful to grip the club. If I were smarter, maybe I would have pulled out, but I was playing so good I felt like if I could knock it out quickly and just get through the first couple rounds, I would still have a chance. But I think that’s part of my stubbornness, probably. 

“That’s probably a strength of mine and a weakness at times. Like, I’ve never been one to ever pull out of a tournament, especially in the middle of it. That’s really frustrating for me. So I definitely didn’t want to do that going into this week, even though it was suggested.”

When asked whether walking around the course throughout the week felt fine, Scheffler said the adrenaline helped him push through the pain. 

“Walking’s fine,” he said. “Once you get on the course, you get the adrenaline and everything. I started to feel better. But the blisters on my hands were probably the most challenging, just because it was painful to grip the club to start the week… I really just did my best to try and battle, and it maybe was a poor decision playing, but I’ve never been one to try and quit.”

The New Jersey native will carry that mentality into next week’s Tour Championship, where the top 30 players in the FedExCup standings will compete. Despite Scheffler’s dip in performance due to his health, his position at the top remains unchanged.

Scheffler has won two events this season. One came back in January and the other last week. With the Tour Championship remaining, Scottie Scheffler has one final opportunity to convert his double to a triple.