No one has fried an egg on the sidewalk in Memphis lately, but it may just be a matter of time. It’s supposed to be 100 degrees this weekend for the PGA Tour's first playoff event of this 2026 season, the FedEx St. Jude Championship in steamy Tennessee.
Both Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler are used to hot weather. They are professional golfers, and being outdoors in the summer months is just part of the job. But even they take precautions to help get though the heat successfully.
One step that Scheffler and most golfers take is hydration, which Scheffler said actually happens well before a round.
“You can only drink so much water out on the course without getting waterlogged. That's something that we actually experience at home depending on, if I take a break to eat lunch and go back out and chug a bunch of water, you can get waterlogged,” he explained in his pre-tourney presser. “It feels like it sits in your belly sometimes.”
If you’ve ever done that, you know it can feel like it’s sloshing around in your stomach. Scheffler explained that his preparation is more than drinking water. It’s a combination of food and drink.
“A lot of the hydration is something you have to focus on beforehand, and it's not necessarily water, it's a lot of electrolytes and stuff like that,” he noted. “The heat is something you really have to prepare for ahead of time.”
Scheffler’s wife makes protein balls for the course, and caddie Ted Scott always carries snacks in the bag.
“Some days I eat them; some days I don't. It depends on if I get hungry or not. I'm not super structured in that part,” he added.
“I almost try to view the Playoffs as one big, long tournament, like a 12-round event. You've got to pace yourself. It's three long weeks,” he said. “We're going from here to St. Louis to Atlanta. Every week is going to feel a bit like this. It's going to be hot and sweaty. So, you want to be able to conserve energy as well.”
McIlroy also has learned to deal with heat, and he’s no stranger to it these days, living in South Florida. But as hot and humid as Florida can be, it’s nothing compared to some of the places McIlroy has visited and played golf.
“I've played a lot in like Southeast Asia, like at the start of my career,” he began. “So, Singapore, Malaysia. There's been times where it's just been absolutely miserable. Like this is hot here, but it's not like the humidity that you get in some of those places is just next level. This is bearable compared to some places.”
The secret?
“Electrolytes, water, and keep going,” McIlroy insisted. “I think the weekend is going to be a little tougher than these last few days, but it's fine. We're playing in two-balls. We're going to be out there for probably like four hours. It's not like you're in that heat for five-and-a-half, six hours with a full field. So, I guess that's a positive.”
Even heat cannot stop cuteness with fans:
McIlroy was chatting with a seven-year-old girl in the gallery, and he was asked what she said. His own daughter, Poppy, is six.
“Just asking her what she likes to do, and she's telling me she loves watching Disney+, and I was asking her what her favorite show was. She said Bluey. I think I've seen every single Bluey episode, so I was asking her what her favorite episode was.”
We didn’t get the answer to that important question, but we now know McIlroy watches Bluey, most likely with Poppy. How completely cute.
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