Scottie Scheffler says his swing was good.
But subsequent shots in the drop zone are not, which led number 1 in the world to vent during Thursday’s first round Memorial Tour — and many of his thoughts were picked up by the Golf Channel and PGA Tour live mic. The comments came on Muirfield Village Golf Club’s par-3 16th hole, where Scheffler’s tee shot found water left of the green despite what he believed to be clean contact.
Then came the words. Most spoke towards the caddy Ted Scottand the conversation centered around misjudging the wind.
“I never thought I was in the water,” Scheffler said from the engine room as Scott started to move forward. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t hear a word you’re saying.”
“I feel like it was a good shot,” Scheffler said as he started walking toward the drop zone. “Now I’m in the water. Because it went right. It absolutely washed out a 7-iron and we get the wind wrong, and I end up in the water. I don’t think you understand how disappointing that is. I thought it was a good shot. It was really… Golly.”
“I liked that shot,” Scheffler said in the drop zone. “I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do. I don’t understand. I really don’t understand. I mean, it was five feet short of the green, the 7-iron chipped, because it’s out to the right. Like there’s no way it could have bent that much. … It’s so frustrating. … I can’t miss hit.
From the drop zone, Scheffler then hit to 10 feet, and he two-putted from there for a double bogey. The conversation between Scheffler and Scott continued on the walk to the green and briefly off it. On the Golf Channel broadcast, analyst Curt Byrum said that “sometimes being a good tournament caddy is just being able to take the abuse that the player is going to throw at you, take the chips that are coming your way. . . . And Teddy Scott has been there a million times.”
As to who is to blame, a caddy can advise, but the player, of course, hits the shot. Afterwards, a reporter asked Scheffler his thoughts on the 16th.
“That’s just another really good iron shot, and the wind went from down to right to very significantly to the right,” he said. “If it’s to the right, that ball is probably where I wedge it. So I just don’t know what to do there outside of trying to hit a good shot, and then it’s frustrating when it doesn’t work, especially when it doesn’t work that way.
“I’d rather have it hit left than right there. All you can do is try to make good shots. It can be very frustrating sometimes when you feel like you’re making good shots and then you’re going into the drop zone.”
Was Scheffler hitting good shots Thursday and not getting the results he expected?
“Yeah, that’s what it felt like,” he said. “Yeah, the wind is just hard to predict. It’s just hard to predict. When it’s gusty and then the greens are so tight — I mean, 12 is also a good example, where you can’t — like, you’ve got two or three yards where you can actually hold that green, especially with how tight they were getting.
“Eleven is a good example, too, because if I hit the 4-iron and it’s straight, if I get the pin up, I’ll go over the green in the rough. The five-iron is tough because when the wind goes like this and like that, I can end up 15, 20 yards short of the green in the rough, and then you bring water into play.
“So there’s a lot of things you have to think about and I think it becomes even more challenging when the greens are so tight and the wind is unpredictable, especially on a day where the wind felt like it was going to be lighter and it was for most of the day, which is – I think it just shows how difficult the golf course is.”
After 16, Scheffler birdied 17 and split 18, and he finished with a one-over 73, which was six back of the lead. At birdie, Scheffler got a break when his second shot, from the right fairway bunker, hit a fairway just short of the right side of the green — and from there, Scheffler chipped in.
“I got a good break there,” Scheffler said. “That was fun. That was good. Good breaks are more fun than – that – see, that’s the thing that can be so frustrating about golf is that I putt a putter in the hole before that and I ended up in the water. That one I kind of hit, and you get a good bounce and I end up on the edge and I hit it. a little bit higher so I could keep the green And then it landed in the rough right over the bunker, which is also dead, that bunker, and ended up smashing one. So you’re fine.
“Yeah, what a game. I felt like I got nothing out of the round, all of a sudden you just get one lucky bounce and you’re like, OK, well, I’ll try to smile, it’s still tough.”
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