Scottie Scheffler adjusts to links golf and his role as best player in the world
TROON, Scotland (AP) — The first stage of Scottie Scheffler’s rise to the top of golf felt like warp speed. He went from No. 15 in the world to No. 1 in the span of five tournaments, and that was before he won the Masters for the first time. He’s at a level he hasn’t been at since Tiger Woods’ heyday.
Scheffler isn’t the biggest draw at the British Open, especially with Woods in the field. Rory McIlroy remains a big attraction, especially in Britain, and comes to Royal Troon as a sentimental favorite after failing miserably at the U.S. Open and not playing in a major for a decade.
But in the last big tournament of the year, as in all the big tournaments this year, every conversation starts with the heavy favorite, Scheffler. And it took time to fully evaluate the status in the game.
“I had never thought of myself other than a golf player,” said the cheper on Tuesday. “I never tried to be famous, I never wanted to be a celebrity or anything like that. I just wanted to be a good golfer and do my best. That’s what got me here, so I’m just going to keep my head down and do the work that got me here and keep training and keep trying to hopefully keep improving. »
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His six PGA Tour wins before the July transition are the most since Arnold Palmer in 1962. Someone pointed out to Scheffler that Palmer’s seventh win that year was the Jug of Bordeaux he won at Royal Troon.
He wasn’t sure how to respond to that, other than to shrug and say, “Yeah, that would be great.”
“I like the history of the game, and there are some things I know and some things I don’t know. “For some reason I’ve never come across it before,” he said, searching for the right answer. “So I didn’t know it existed.”
The British Open is expected to be his biggest challenge yet. Sheffler is still relatively new for Links Golf – all in his rise to No. 1 – new – having played this style in 2021 for the first time. He learned to adjust the flight of his ball, as Links Turf creates a little more rotation in certain pictures. The greens may be slow and bunkers should be avoided. He won the Masters twice, missed a U.S. Open playoff by one stroke at the Country Club and finished second in the PGA Championship at Oak Hill, but he never actually played in golf’s oldest championship. But his love for the links remains the same.
A few years ago he went to JP McManus Pro-Am in Ireland and visited Lahinch and Ballybunion. He began his transatlantic journey by skipping the Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club (links-style but not grass) and heading to Turnberry with Sam Burns for a match against two of his caddies who are both good players.
“It’s really, really fun,” he said. Then it was time to get to work at Royal Troon, a course famous for having the longest hole in the British Open rotation (the 623-yard sixth) and the shortest (the 123-yard eighth).
What’s most unusual about Troon is that it has two par 5s on the outside nine (where there’s usually at least a slight wind at the players’ backs) and is 3,539 yards long. The Wind in Your Face inside nine is a par 5 and plays 3,846 yards.
“It’s basically a tale of two nines on this course,” McIlroy said. “It feels like you have to score on the way out and then wait a bit on the way in.”
McIlroy has far more experience at Links Golf – and a pitcher of Bordeaux to show for his win at Royal Liverpool in 2014 – but it still takes time to adapt because “you play golf for 11 months every year in completely different conditions”.
The players are also bracing for weather that has been described as “mixed” to say the least and is likely to be less than pleasant for much of the week. On Tuesday, the sun gave way to rain, and that was before lunch was served. PGA Champion Unpleasant conditions, especially at the Open.
“If the weather gets really bad, you have to take the bunkers out of your game and find your way,” he said. “You don’t have to be super pretty. “Put the ball around the ground and try to get it in the hole in as few shots as possible.”
That’s what Scheffler has been working on all year. As well as his second Masters and Players Championship win, his other four victories have come against top players, on longer courses, shorter courses, in dry and soft conditions, in flagship events. And with that came fame – the bizarre arrest at the PGA Championship certainly helped – something he didn’t expect but now appreciates.
“To be here, playing in front of a huge crowd and hearing them scream your name and cheer you on when you score and really cheer you on is a great feeling,” he said. “This is one of our special advantages.”
