This is the unexpected dish that fueled this year’s Players Championship

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – It can be said that all the time, always immediately what Scottie Scheffler spends in the heat of battle is the product of thousands of decisions that no one has ever seen.

Decisions like the one he faced on Saturday afternoon at the Players Championship, shortly after completing one of the lowest rounds of the day at TPC Sawgrass, when Scheffler faced the most important question: Burrito or bowl?

Golf is a complex game, and that’s because its champions are built on partial advantages. In 2022, Scheffler’s Strokes Gained: Putting was -.301, which ranked 162nd on Tour and caused several months of ongoing apoplexy among golf talking heads. By 2025, it was .382 — an improvement of just over half a shot per round — and Scheffler was unanimously viewed as one of the best players on Tour and an unstoppable force in the sport in general.

The butterfly effect of this advanced development can be seen everywhere on a typical weekend on the PGA Tour, when golfers pursue gear adjustments, physical therapy and even psychotherapy in the faint hope of an extra decimal point.

“If we can make them one percent better every week, then we’ve done something,” said Kellen Watson, Tour Rep for Callaway. “One percent is more than enough.”

Given this competitive environment, it should come as no surprise that nutrition has become a major focus. Allergy testing and other recent advances in nutritional science have led many golfers to adopt a more restrictive, performance-oriented diet. Some players cook everything themselves, avoiding gluten and dairy with military diligence. Some bring personal chefs on the road to take care of even the most pressing dietary needs. The change has been so pronounced that in 2023, the PGA Tour revamped its nutrition program to offer expert-approved menus of a variety of nutritionists and the best functional foods.

Many players appreciated this change, which listed food not only with ingredients but also with the intended time of consumption, such as “RETURN” and “PRE-ROUND.” However, not everyone was happy.

“Actually my complaint here this week is that the food is too healthy for the players,” said Tom Hoge ’23. “There’s our QR code; I filed that complaint. They need the food that all the fat people in America are eating.”

The reality is that the Hoges of the world are going the way of the dinosaur on today’s PGA Tour, where macros are counted and inflammatory foods are avoided. The change to life is especially noticeable at Sawgrass, where a large, permanent gym eats the Tour’s best cars. Those vehicles, named the “Work Center,” host licensed physical therapists, psychologists, trainers and a nutritionist for nearly every event on the schedule.

“Actually, what I want is for our athletes to get the kind of facilities like a professional sports team [has],” said Andy Levinson, the Tour’s SVP of tournament management. “So we’re trying to have all the same equipment, the same services, everything.”

But not all changes are routine – at the Players Championship, the Tour threw a bone to the Hoges of the world by welcoming the first addition to the player, caddy and restaurant family: Chipotle.

The ubiquitous fast food brand was a late addition to players’ week, setting up shop in a small tent just behind the player’s goal area. While the menu isn’t as scientific or nutritionally dense as the usual offerings at the players’ meals, it didn’t take long to become a tour favorite.

“The 17th is the most photographed area at TPC Sawgrass this week,” said one security guard working in front of the marquee Thursday morning. “But this place could be second.”

Chipotle says they are committed to serving 400 meals a day to players with a limited menu of burritos and burrito bowls. Customization options are trimmed to include only the most popular (and healthiest) menu items, cooked in an attached, full-service kitchen by staff drawn from locations throughout the Jacksonville area. At the end of the day, extra food is provided to security and tournament staff.

All day Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the tent was a hub of activity among the competing class. Besides Scheffler, golfers like Maverick McNealy (who is said to plan his tournament weeks by visiting Chipotle) ​​and Max Homa were regulars, along with dozens of caddies, tournament staff and other players. The love story had a simple reason: the food is relatively healthy, easy to find, and reliably good – three qualities that cannot be found in a lifetime spent on the road.

“When I go on a Sunday, it’s my habit to eat junk food – usually my favorite candy at the airport,” Homa, who received a Chipotle sponsorship last year, told me. GOLF with a grin. Other than that, I try to eat really healthy. I don’t count calories or anything, but good food helps.

Homa’s rotation in food is open-minded. He tries to eat “healthy” during tournaments and competitions, but his diet is not very restrictive. He stays away from red meat in the evening, but he eats rainbows. Scheffler is the same, even though his Chipotle habits earned him recognition at the Open Championship in July.

“It’s where I grew up, near the SMU campus. If I were to go to that Chipotle and try to eat these days, it would be very difficult for me,” Scheffler said. “There is another part of the city that I won’t tell you where it is, but if I go there, no one will see me.”

The unifying theory is not devotion to a product but to a way of life. Professional golfers are determined to do big things with small gains – and as silly as it sounds, the burrito bowl is a tool to pursue those goals.

“It was good to see people realize that nutrition is personal,” said Homa. “Like, lettuce is good in a salad, but some people don’t mince lettuce. So I think it’s more personalized than it used to be. When I was growing up, it was bad for sweets, this is good.”

On Saturday at the Players Championship, the abundance of choice was on full display. With players flooding in from the weather-driven day at TPC Sawgrass, the choices facing players were as impressive as they were varied. Lunch or recovery? Schedule time or practice? Burrito or bowl?

World No. 1 pondered each of these things as he stepped off the 18th green at TPC Sawgrass and headed for the tee shot. A few minutes later, Scottie Scheffler had settled on a solution.

“Barbacoa in a bowl,” the bean peg who was serving him repeated later with a smile. “A little bit of everything inside.”