Scottie Scheffler has injured his right hand on a broken glass preparing Christmas dinner, forcing the world's top-ranked player to withdraw from the PGA Tour's season-opening event in Hawaii.
"Scottie sustained a puncture wound to the palm of his right hand from a broken glass," Scheffler's manager, Blake Smith, said in a statement.
"Small glass fragments remained in the palm which required surgery. He has been told that he should be back to 100 per cent in three to four weeks."
Scheffler withdrew from The Sentry, the winners-only tournament that runs from January 2-5 at Kapalua Resort near Lahaina on the island of Maui.
His next scheduled tournament is The Desert Classic from January 16-19 in La Quinta, California.
It marks a disappointing start to the New Year after a blockbuster 2024 for Scheffler, who maintained his world number one ranking for the whole season.
Last season, Scheffler won the Jack Nicklaus Award as PGA Tour player of the year in a landslide, joining Tiger Woods as the only players to win the award three straight times.
His seven PGA Tour wins included a second Masters title, and he became the first repeat winner of The Players Championship.
He won an Olympic gold medal when he shot 62 on the final day, and also took the Tour Championship to claim the FedEx Cup.
The accident and surgery adds another out-of-the-ordinary event for Scheffler, after an incident at this year's PGA Championship where he was charged on May 17 with four counts, including felony second-degree assault on a police officer outside the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.
Scheffler was arrested for allegedly attempting to drive around traffic that was backed up due to a pedestrian fatality investigation outside the Valhalla course.
He was released from jail hours later in time to compete in the tournament, which was delayed by the fatal accident near the entrance to the course.
All charges were later dropped.
Wires/ABC
