Scott Stallings

Stallings was born in Worcester, Mass. He attended Oak Ridge High School in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and was an all-state golfer and a four-year member of the Dean's List. He attended Tennessee Tech, where he was a two-time Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year, winning seven tournaments, and was named an All-American in 2006.
He says if he weren't a professional golfer, he'd want to be a pediatrician. After turning professional, played on both the NGA Hooters Tour and the Tarheel Tour in 2008-09. Made the cut in 11 of 14 starts on the Hooters Tour in 2009 with nine top-25 finishes. He played the Knoxville Open in 2007 and missed the cut. In 2008, he got into the Chattanooga Classic and in his second start on the Web.com Tour, finished T-14th after starting the event with rounds of 64-62. Weekend rounds of 73-76 dropped him down. He played in Chattanooga again in 2009 and missed the cut. At the end of the year, he just missed qualifying for the PGA Tour by a shot, thus getting his Web.com Tour card.
2010 Web.com Tour Summary: Tournaments entered - 28; Rounds played - 94; in money - 19; top-10 Finishes - 9; Scoring Average - 70.35 (ranked T-55th); money $127,606 (ranked 53rd); best finish: T-5th, Chiquita Classic. At the end of the year, he finished T-11th at Q-School, getting his PGA Tour card for 2011.
2011 Notes: In his rookie year, he won at The Greenbrier, beating Bob Estes and Bill Haas in a playoff. He also had a 3rd place showing in 28 starts. Spent the year blogging for BNET, the CBS Interactive Business Network.
2012 Notes: Won for the second time at the True South Classic in July. More good news: He announced to television crews and the crowd the pregnancy of his wife with their first child. Stallings told his wife, Jennifer, that if he won, he was going to announce the news a week before originally planned. A week later, in Canada, he posted his PGA Tour career-low round of 7-under 63 in the third round to claim a T-7th at the RBC Canadian Open.
2013 Notes: Started season T-4th at Humana Challenge. A couple of weeks later, his wife delivered son, Bradley, in February. At end of May, posted back-to-back T-4th finishes at the Crowne Plaza Colonial and The Memorial. Followed those performances with a T-2nd at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. Finished 28th in the FedExCup race and 54th in the money race.
2014 Notes: Played in 28 PGA Tour events making 12 cuts. He had one top-10, a win at the Farmers Insurance Open by a shot over Jason Day, Marc Leishman, Pat Perez, Graham DeLaet, and K.J. Choi. Was 84th in the FedExCup race. With his weight getting up to 255, he made some dietary changes to lose weight, starting with a decrease in sodas. Small changes helped Stallings drop fifteen pounds quickly. Unfortunately, at the same time, doctors described a hormone drug that spelled problems in 2015.
2015 Notes: Played in 19 PGA Tour events making 11 cuts. He had one top-10, a 2nd-place finish while defending his title at the Farmers Insurance Open, losing in a playoff to Jason Day. Was 129th in the FedExCup race. His year was shortened after the Greenbrier Classic when he was suspended for three months for violating the PGA Tour Anti-Doping Policy's ban. The hormone his doctor gave him to address his medical problems became a problem. At the same time, Stallings was experiencing disturbingly high levels of exhaustion. At times, he barely had enough energy for golf, much less to play with his kids. Then when bedtime rolled around, Stallings couldn't sleep. He visited the doctor for a complete workup; the news wasn't good. Stallings' cortisol and testosterone levels were completely out of whack, and he was diagnosed with acute adrenal fatigue. An MRT blood test showed his inflammatory markers were more representative of a sedentary, middle-aged man than a professional athlete. An allergy test revealed Stallings had reactions to sweet potato, barley, and milk, which were key ingredients in the protein powder he had been mixing into his shakes daily. "It was basically killing me, and I had used it for two straight years," Stallings says. Then, during a two-night sleep study, Stallings went into REM sleep only once, for a scant 15 minutes. Lack of sleep was making it impossible for Stallings to have the hormone profile necessary to improve his physical condition. His medical team decided that the problem was their most urgent and worked to fix it first. Through testing, doctors determined that Stallings' three childhood broken noses had resulted in injuries that made it difficult to breathe during sleep. Stallings underwent surgery to fix his dysfunctional sinus cavity in July 2015. "The first two weeks of recovery were excruciating, but as bad as it hurt, I'd do it again," Stallings says. The near-instantaneous improvement in his ability to sleep improved Stallings' hormone levels, increasing his energy and motivating him to get back to the gym. Stallings began working out, and it all started to help him.
2016 Notes: Played in 27 PGA Tour events making 11 cuts. He had one top-10, a T-9th at the RSM Classic, and he finished 128th in the FedExCup race.
2017 Notes: Played in 27 PGA Tour events making 14 cuts. Had three top-10s, T-3rd at the Barbasol Championship, T-5th at the John Deere, and 8th at the CareerBuilder Challenge. Was 101st in the FedExCup race.
2018 Notes: Played in 30 PGA Tour events making 18 cuts with two top-ten finishes. In the final FedExCup rankings was 93rd. Was 7th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am, the next week was T-4th at the Genesis Open, three back of winner Bubba Watson. In the FedExCup Playoffs, he was T-28th at the Northern Trust and T-49th at the Dell Technologies Championship.
2019 Notes: Played in 26 PGA Tour events making 15 cuts with one top-ten finish. In the final FedExCup rankings was 109th. With a final round of 66 finished 3rd at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am, four shots back of winner Phil Mickelson. After opening rounds of 69-68 at the Valspar Championship went into the weekend T-3rd. Shot 70-73 to finish T-10th, four shots back of winner Paul Casey. At the FedExCup Playoffs missed the cut at the Northern Trust. He was still doing his exercise routine and at 34 years old, was down to 185, 70 pounds lighter than in 2014, and his body fat was down to 10% after being 26% in 2014.
2020 Notes: Played in 20 PGA Tour events making 15 cuts with two top-ten finishes. In the final FedExCup rankings was 120th. He was T-6th at the Travelers Championship, four shots back of winner Dustin Johnson. Finished T-5th at the Barracuda Championship was four points back of winner Richy Werenski. In the FedExCup Playoffs missed the cut at the Northern Trust.
2021 Notes: Played in 27 PGA Tour events making 15 cuts with two top-ten finishes. In the final FedExCup rankings was 124th. He was T-6th at the Sanderson Farms Championship, five shots back of winner Sergio Garcia. Finished T-3rd at the AT&T Byron Nelson, his best result on the PGA Tour since the 2019 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (T-3rd). Shot 63-66 over the weekend and was four shots back of winner K.H. Lee. In the FedExCup Playoffs missed the cut at the Northern Trust. Still, his health was better than ever. Stallings has stopped staying in hotels because he wants a kitchen where he can cook, so he loads his groceries into the fridge at his Airbnb, alongside a regular shipment of organic meals from Trifecta Nutrition, which are delivered to each PGA Tour stop. Water is also essential, with Stallings trying to drink three gallons each day before dinner.
2022 Notes: Played in 31 PGA Tour events making 17 cuts with seven top-ten finishes. He finished 29th on the FedExCup standings, with earnings of $3,933,593, and had his best season ever on the PGA Tour. Was T-6th in the season-opening Fortinet Championship, six shots back of winner Max Homa. Entered the final round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship T-50th before carding a 62 to finish T-5th, three shots back of winner Lucas Herbert. After that, Stallings struggled, at the RSM was in contention going into the final round, shot 73 to finish T-29th. He had a terrible West Coast swing, but things started to change after missing the cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. After finishing T-42nd at the Players Championship, he was 71st in the FedExCup standings. He started working with Hunter Stewart, a stats guru. Stewart pointed out that his mid-iron play was hurting him over the last year. Stallings started working on this and finished T-4th at the Charles Schwab Challenge. But after missing the cut at the Memorial and U.S. Open, Stewart said that one of his problems could be the irons he had been using for about a year. After the U.S. Open, he ranked 150th in Greens in Regulation. He switched to his old irons at the Travelers and finished T-8th. In his next start at the John Deere, he hit 57 of 72 greens, the most he had hit since the 2020 Travelers, and he finished T-4th at the Deere. In his next start at the Rocket Mortgage, he again hit 57 greens and finished T-10th. At the BMW Championship, he hit 58 greens on the demanding Wilmington course, which ranked 2nd, and he finished 2nd, his best finish since his runner-up finish at the 2015 Farmers. At that point, he was 12th on the FedExCup point list, the highest he ever ranked in his 12 years on tour. Stallings struggled at the Tour Championship and finished 29th.
2023 Notes: Best finish T-13th at the Sanderson Farms Championship. He was T-15th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.