Scottie Scheffler's caddie Ted Scott lifts lids on early days of their partnership

Scottie Scheffler's caddie Ted Scott has lifted a lid on how their wildly successful partnership came to be. 

Scott has been carrying the sticks for the top-ranked Scheffler since late 2021 following his split with two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson.  

Together, they have tasted victory at 19 PGA Tour events, won four major championship titles and an Olympic gold medal. 

American Scheffler, 29, is now the favourite to become the seventh golfer in the history of the men's game to complete the career grand slam. 

Yet things could have turned out extremely differently had he not picked up a phone and called Scott towards the end of 2021. 

During a conversation Richard E. Simmons III for The Center of Executive Leadership, Scott explained that before Scheffler called he was ready to retire after 22 years on the PGA Tour. 

It allowed him to lay down the law, insisting that he was not prepared to work with someone with a poor attitude. Scheffler was extremely talented and was among the top 20 in the OWGR before he called Scott, but was known to run hot. 

"When I got the phone call, it was basically through a mutual friend of ours," Scott said. 

"Some of y’all might know Steven Bunn. His counterpart, Brad Payne, called me and said, 'Hey, you're about to get a phone call from an amazing golfer, and I really think you ought to take the job.'

"And I called my wife and said, 'I can't believe I'm about to start working for Tiger Woods. This is so cool.' 

"But then Scottie called me and I was like, 'Oh.' So that was kind of disappointing. He was only 19th in the world and hadn't won anything yet."

Scott said he got to see Scheffler in action at the Zurich Classic when he partnered the aforementioned Watson. 

"And I could tell he was talented, but he was very frustrated on the course," added Scott.

"My thing was, I had already caddied for 22 years or whatever, and I was basically retiring. I told Bubba, 'I'm done. I just want to go and live my life and do something different, maybe get into ministry - something I'm passionate about.

"So when I got the phone call, it was like, 'Okay, do I come out of retirement to work for this guy?' And I had the leg up because I didn't need to do it anymore. I'd done it for 22 years. I'd filled my role.

"So I was able to say some things to him that probably I wouldn't have said if I was a brand new caddie - and that was really about accountability, something you talk about in your book. I think the best way we perform is when we hold each other accountable and don't get too prideful.

"So when he called me, the first thing I said to him was, 'Do you like dad jokes? Because I’m going to tell a lot of those.' And he said, 'I can tolerate them.'

"Then I said, 'Look man, I don't know if I want to work for you.' And he was like, 'What do you mean by that?' And we kind of went into how he presents himself - not to hold him to perfection, but just to say, I don't want to work for somebody that's just going to have a bad attitude. 'Can you work on it?' I asked. And he said, 'Absolutely.'

"And then I was all in after that. I want people to do the same for me. I need that in my life. Some of you probably saw the Ryder Cup - I can get a little fired up sometimes. Sorry about that. But yeah, I need accountability. It's very important."

Scott said the finest caddying of his career came during the Olympic Games in Paris.

Scheffler was struggling to deal with the expectations on his shoulders and Scott gave him a check list of only three things to execute after 36 holes of the tournament. 

When Scheffler won, he told Scott that it wouldn't have been possible without him. 

Scheffler is currently taking a break from competitive golf, but will be back in action next month at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.