Why Happiness Doesn't Last

A Professional Golfer Reflects on the Fleeting Satisfaction of Success

Golfer Scottie Scheffler won his second major title of 2025 on Sunday, July 20, at the British Open. His skillful and steady game produced a score of 17-under-par, four shots better than fellow American Harris English. According to Fox News, "There's only one word to describe Scottie Scheffler’s performance … dominant."

Having won the PGA Championship in May, Scheffler has now been victorious in half of this year's major tournaments, which include the Masters Tournament (April), the PGA Championship (May), the U.S. Open (June), and the Open [British] Championship (July). To date, Scheffler has won three of four majors, and is the first player during the modern major championship era to win his first four majors by three or more strokes.

At Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland, Scheffler started behind the pack but then took command on Friday, establishing a four-shot lead. He played another excellent round on Sunday, wavering only once with a double bogey on the 8th hole. He got a stroke back on the 9th hole, putting him five shots ahead of everyone else. From that point on, his victory was virtually assured.

On the 18^th green, Scheffler tossed his cap high in the air as he caught sight of wife and his toddler son, Bennett, and went to pick him up. His father snapped a photo of the leaderboard, which was congratulating Scheffler on his achievement. But there would be "no Instagram posts or media tours," reported Golfweek, "because that's not what Scheffler's about."

"He doesn't care to be a superstar," said fellow golfer Jordan Spieth. Scheffler's personality is different "from any other superstar that you've seen in the modern era and maybe in any sport. I don't think anybody is like him." Scheffler has the unique ability to separate his golf life from the rest of his life, according to Spieth -- family and faith come first. The New York Times reports that Scheffler said that golf "is one of the greatest joys of my life, but does it fill the deepest wants and desires of my heart? Absolutely not." Golf is not Scheffler's identity.

According to The Washington Post, Harris English, Chris Gotterup, Wyndham Clark and Rory McIlroy made challenges along the way, but they never seriously threatened Scheffler in the Open. The Northern Ireland crowd was clearly on the side of native son McIlroy, who was the 2025 Masters champion. At the end of the event, McIlroy showed his respect for Scheffler by saying, "He is the bar we're all trying to get to. … Incredibly impressive."

Scheffler has offered a refreshing perspective on accomplishments and happiness. In a reflective moment with reporters before the Open, he said, "You win it, you celebrate, get to hug my family, my sister's there, it's such an amazing moment. Then it's like, 'Okay, what are we going to eat for dinner?' Life goes on." Sensing the fleeting nature of success, he said, "It feels like you work your whole life to celebrate winning a tournament for, like, a few minutes. It only lasts a few minutes."

Arthur Brooks, a professor at Harvard Business School who teaches a course on happiness, was asked to reflect on Scheffler by The New York Times. He said, "Humans naturally set goals, and then they get all their satisfaction from making incremental progress toward the goals. But that's where a cognitive error comes in. The belief is that once you actually achieve your goal, once you get to that finish line, that's when the ultimate satisfaction will occur and that will last. It will be bliss and it'll be good forever."

But satisfaction does not last. "Now, why is it that," asked Brooks, "a majority of Olympic gold medalists suffer from clinical depression in the three months after winning their gold medal? Because it doesn't satisfy. That's called the arrival fallacy." Arriving at the goal does not leave a person with permanent happiness.

Brooks once thought, "'If I have a book that's No. 1 on The New York Times' bestseller list, it's going to be so freaking awesome,' and you get there and you're like, 'Yeah, but the next week, it's a book by some politician,' and you're like, 'Oh.' That's how we're wired. That's how the arrival fallacy works. In a nutshell, that's what Scottie Scheffler was talking about."

"Meaning comes from human relationships," concluded Brooks, "meaning comes from love. We're built for love. The happiest people are the people who are serious about their faith or their philosophical lives, who have serious family relationships, have deep, real friendships, not just 'deal' friendships."

ESPN offered this reflection on Scheffler's achievement at the Open, "Scottie Scheffler may not find his life's true fulfillment in winning, but that's not going to keep him from continuing to do it on the sport's biggest stages."