When the Dream Isn’t Enough: Scottie Scheffler, Solomon, and the Search for More

Scottie Scheffler has it all. Three major golf championships. Olympic gold. World number one for over 100 weeks. More than £65 million in prize money. And yet, as he begins his Open Championship week, he reflects, “What’s the point?”

“I wrestle with this daily,” he says. “Because I’d much rather be a great father than I would be a great golfer.”

It’s a striking honesty. And it’s ancient too.

Solomon, Israel’s wisest and wealthiest king, once chased everything—wisdom, work, wine, sex, palaces, fame. In Ecclesiastes, he writes, “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired… yet everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 2:10–11)

The Prodigal Son, too, chased freedom and fun. He left home certain that the good life was “out there.” But when the money ran out, so did the joy. He ended up feeding pigs, empty and alone—until he realised what he had walked away from. (Luke 15)

Scheffler’s experience echoes theirs. Success is real—but fleeting. “You win a tournament,” he says, “and it feels amazing… for two minutes.”

It’s not that these things are bad. Solomon’s wealth, the Prodigal’s freedom, Scheffler’s trophies—none are evil. But they can’t bear the weight of meaning. They don’t reach “the deepest places of your heart.”

C.S. Lewis once wrote:
“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

That’s where the gospel speaks. Not just into our sin, but our hollowness. Jesus tells the story of the Prodigal not to shame him—but to show that despite his folly, everything he needs is with his Father who welcomes him home.

Maybe today’s success is tomorrow’s vacuum. Maybe the clearest thing we can see from the top of the podium is this: there must be more.

What hill are you climbing? What dream captures your heart?

See www.bbc.com/sport/golf/articles/cvg6zgeypego on 16/07/25