FORT WORTH – When last we saw Scottie Scheffler, roughly 67 hours earlier and 970 miles away, he was winning the PGA Championship and exuberantly slamming his cap onto Quail Hollow Club’s 18th green, as though spiking a football.

The scene and circumstances were starkly different Wednesday on Colonial Country Club’s 18th green, as Scheffler and his playing partners finished their 9-hole Charles Schwab Challenge Pro-Am round.

Coincidentally, the PGA Championship took place in Charlotte, N.C., and on Wednesday 6-year-old Charlotte Berlou accompanied Scheffler on Colonial’s 17th and 18th holes.

Blond-haired Charlotte has had seven open-heart surgeries. Through Fort Worth-based A Wish With Wings, her request was to meet Dallas resident and now three-time major champion Scheffler.

Wish granted, though truth be known Scheffler probably got the bigger kick out of meeting Charlotte, judging from his smile as she twirled in the 18th fairway, the big pink ribbon in her hair matching her dress.

“She’s such a bright spirit,” Scheffler said. “She said she’s a jazz dancer. I was trying to get her to teach me a couple of moves out there.”

Perspective. Scheffler, ranked No. 1 in the world for the 104th straight week, is a relatively new father: His son, Bennett, was born a year and 14 days ago.

Naturally, Scheffler is aware that playing in his pseudo-hometown PGA Tour event is big for the Schwab Challenge and a chance for fans to fete him after his latest big victory, but make no mistake about his mindset when he tees it up at 12:45 p.m. Thursday.

“Coming off a major win, obviously there’s a lot of emotion and stuff that comes with winning that golf tournament,” he said. “But at the end of the day, I didn’t just show up here to Fort Worth to just walk around and celebrate last week.

“I’m here for a reason, and that’s not to just play a couple of ceremonious rounds and then ride off in the sunset. I’m here for a reason. That’s to compete.”

For a clue of how Scheffler might play this week, consider his history. When he won his first major, the 2022 Masters, he didn’t play the following week. But after winning the 2024 Masters, he won the following week’s RBC Heritage by three shots.

He’s won his last two starts, the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in McKinney and the PGA Championship, by a combined 13 shots. He also has momentum here at 7,289-yard Colonial, finishing solo second in 2022; tying for third in 2023; and T-2 last May.

A victory Sunday would make Scheffler the second player to win both North Texas PGA Tour events in the same year, along with Ben Hogan in 1946. Scheffler also is bidding to become the first player with wins in three straight Tour starts since Dustin Johnson in 2017.

Scheffler isn’t the only player in his Thursday and Friday group bidding for history. Reigning champion Davis Riley is attempting to join Hogan (1946-47 and 1952-53) as the only repeat winner in Schwab Challenge history.

“We don’t play Bermuda [grass] very often, and we don’t play golf courses like this very often,” Scheffler said. “I like the challenge of more of an old-school design. It’s just a place that hasn’t changed much over the years, and it continues to test us.”

It’s a course not unlike Scheffler’s home tract 37 miles east of here, Dallas’ Royal Oaks Country Club, which last year was inducted into the Texas Golf Hall of Fame as one of the state’s great historic courses.

After he won at Quail Hollow last week, he remarked what a long week it had been, and that he’d battled as hard as he’s ever had for a win.

That probably helped explain his cap spike at tournament’s end, unusually demonstrative for even-keeled Scheffler.

“When I played football, I didn’t score very many touchdowns, so I wasn’t too experienced in that,” he deadpanned Wednesday. “I think I just kind of let my emotions out a little bit, and I guess that’s where my brain decided it wanted to go at that time.”

At Quail Hollow, Scheffler patiently stood on the 18th green after the trophy ceremony, posing for photos. He went through a gauntlet of interviews.

Normally he would have flown to the site of his next event and played practice rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday, but this week he admittedly needed to decompress.

He said he went to the gym on Tuesday, and his nine pro-am holes on Wednesday constituted his only on-course prep work.

Walking with Charlotte for the final two holes, along with her 8-year-old brother, Grant, to make sure little sis didn’t overexert herself, probably helped Scheffler further decompress.

Charlotte and Grant, along with their parents Logan and Lacey, came to Colonial from Fulshear, near Houston. Lacey joined news photographers and TV journalists on the 18th green, taking photos of Scheffler and her kids.

“It was a ton of fun,” Scheffler said. “I love being able to walk around and keep things loose with the kiddos.”

As he came off the 18th green, dozens of kiddos awaited, shouting “Scottie! Scottie!” and Scheffler smiled and signed autographs before coming in for his news conference.

“Fortunately, this is a golf course that I’ve been around numerous times,” he said. “Today, I got a good feel for the speed of the greens, hit a couple of bunker shots; hit some chips out of the rough.

“Outside of that, I need to give my brain and body a rest to prepare for another event.”

From grueling, high-pressure Charlotte, N.C., to sweet, brave, blond Charlotte at Colonial. Next up: Another history-making win?

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