OAKMONT, Pa. — If you wanted a good old-fashioned clump-of-grass-in-your-face U.S. Open, you got it. So did Scottie Scheffler. As erratically as the No. 1 player in the world played Friday, he was grateful when the check arrived and the bill was a 1-over-par 71. It could have been worse. That would be a good slogan for the U.S. Open, by the way, and perhaps for the entire USGA: It Could Be Worse. The event’s logo should be a grimace.
“I was not hitting the ball in the correct spots and [was] paying the price for it,” Scheffler said. “With the way I was hitting it, it was easily a day I could have been going home.”
There is basically one week of the year when a player with an early Friday tee time can walk off the course at 4 over par and not worry about the cut, and this is it.
Coming into this event, Scheffler had made bogey or worse on 10% of his holes this season. He has made bogey on 31% of his holes here. Yet he is correct when he says he still has a chance to win. His close friend Sam Burns shot a 65 here Friday; if Scheffler does that Saturday, he might wake up Sunday with the lead.
The best thing you can say for Scheffler right now is that he has not made any double bogeys—and that’s actually a huge compliment. These are absurdly long rounds of golf on a brutal course with heavily matted rough. The only thing that’s easier to lose than your ball is your patience. Scheffler repeatedly took what the course gave him, even when that was a slap in the face.
“When you hit the ball out of position here, you just have to try to get the ball back on,” he said. “That’s all there is to it. You can get lucky sometimes and get a lie and get something to the green. That wasn’t really happening for me today.”
On the 9th hole, his last of the day, Scheffler hit his drive in the right rough. He was 3 over for the tournament, surely hot and probably worn out. He grabbed a 7-wood.
“In my head I’m like, ‘Aw, I can get this to the green, I can get this to the green.’” Scheffler said. “The more we stood there, I was like ‘Ah, I probably shouldn’t do this.’”
He hit a wedge and made bogey, which was not a reason to celebrate, but it was a lot better than trying to hit a hero shot and making double.
“Forcing it around this place,” Scheffler said, “is probably not a good recipe.”
Scheffler arrived here as a prohibitive favorite, but at this event, prohibitive favorites should be prohibited.
There is a reason that Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods won almost twice as many Masters (11) as U.S. Opens (six). There is a reason that Hale Irwin, a former all-Big Eight cornerback at Colorado, won as many U.S. Opens (three) as Woods and Nicklaus. What seemed tough and miserable to everyone else was tough and fun for Irwin.
Scheffler obviously has enough toughness to win. He has enough everything to win. But because the typical U.S. Open is so hard, even the best players end up with a lot of miserable lies. No matter who you are, when you hack out of the thick rough, you can’t really control what the golf ball does. You need some luck.
The idea here is, famously, to identify the best golfer in the world, yet the trophy often ends up in surprising hands. Andy North and Lee Janzen never even contended at the Masters, but they each won two U.S. Opens.
At this event, it is hard for anyone to run away from the field. Scheffler will not run away from this one. But if he plays like he usually does over the weekend, he could win it, all because of a 71 that could have been worse.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Scottie Scheffler Isn’t Playing Like Himself, but Could Still Win This U.S. Open.