Five things to know: Matti Schmid

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – In Wyndham Clark, Matt Fitzpatrick and Scottie Scheffler, three of the biggest names in golf are either at or within shouting distance of the top spot on the leaderboard at THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass.

Then there’s Matti Schmid, who shot 4-under 68 and is tied with Scheffler at 8-under, six back.

Who is Schmid?

Here are five things about the little-known German, who eagled the par-5 16th hole and birdied the iconic 17th before finishing his round with a double-bogey on 18.

1. Schmid was a decorated amateur

Schmid, 26, played collegiately for Louisville and men’s golf coach Ted Schulz, who played the PGA TOUR in the 1980s and ’90s and won four times. (Schulz is still a mentor.)

Schmid’s 69.91 stroke average in 2019-20 was second-best in school history, and he also led the Cardinals in ’20-21 (72.03), when he ranked 19th in the PGA TOUR University rankings.

He also was a back-to-back winner of the European Amateur and won the Silver Medal for low amateur (T59) at The Open Championship 2021 at Royal St. George’s.

Schmid tied the mark for low round by an amateur that week with his second-round 65.

2. He’s practically local

Having established his U.S. base in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, Schmid is enjoying a home game, of sorts.

He’ll also have plenty of support from Germany. His father, Roland, and uncle, Marcus, are already here, while his girlfriend, Nora, is scheduled to arrive from Germany tonight.

Schmid has also been having fun horsing around with fellow German Stephan Jaeger, Austria’s Sepp Straka and Florian Bauer, head of golf for Sky Sports Germany.

3. He has a sense of humor

Schmid and Jaeger got into a darts competition with Bauer on Tuesday at the PGA TOUR Performance Center. Bauer brought the board, which he strung up with gaffer tape, and the darts.

The stakes: If one of the golfers won, Bauer would have to work in a few nonsense words of the golfers’ choosing on the air. If the broadcaster won, the losing golfer would have to do "The Saw," a famous celebration in German soccer, on the 18th green.

Bauer won, and Schmid lost a playoff with Jaeger. That mean that Schmid, and after making a short par putt on 18 on Thursday, had to do The Saw (think fist pump), which he did.

“Kind of hoped the guys would have forgot about it,” Schmid said, “but no, they were there to remind me.” He shrugged. “Maybe it’s lucky.”

“Maybe I should have lost (at darts), I would have played a little better,” said Jaeger (72-72).

Added Bauer, “If I come over here, I always do challenges – with Sepp, for example, we did schnitzel cooking and had a judge taste the two versions of it and I lost.”

4. He’s had a rough start this year

Schmid missed his first six cuts of this season but seemed to find something in his seventh at the Puerto Rico Open last week as he tied for 10th despite a final-round 73.

“I took a big off-season,” he said. “Thought I needed it after a long season and I hadn't had things clicking at all early in the season, but last week was great. It was so much better, closer to what I've been doing end of last season. Yeah, just want to keep following that trend.”

Added Jaeger, “He’s got the game … He just needs to feel comfortable out here and obviously a great start for him.”

Schmid missed 18 of 30 cuts last season but kept his card by finishing 121st in the FedEx Fall.

5. He had some help from Michael Campbell’s old coach

Schmid, who uses a broomstick putter like Adam Scott and others, recently had Jonathan Yarwood, who coached 2005 US Open Champion Michael Campbell, look at his swing. But the two are not formally working together.

“I mean, we had a couple sessions, yeah, but I'm not full-time with him,” said Schmid, whose eagle at 16 left him with a field-leading three for the week (he eagled Nos. 9 and 11 on Thursday). “I don't really have a coach at the moment."