Portrush, Northern Ireland – if there is one thing that seems to worry about Scottie Scheffler in the media room, is the assumption that any of this is easy.
“No,” he said in an interview At the beginning of this yearHe asked if the golf had begun to feel “easy” for him. He said it with a smile, but it was clear how much he said. “Light It is definitely not the right word. I feel like what I want for this game is how difficult it is. ”
He said something similar after Saturday’s round in the open championship in Royal Portrush, an excellent 67 third round consisting of 15 Pars, two birds and one eagle 3 while opened a four -stroke over the rest of the field. One reporter said he looked “stress -free”, which is understandable, given the pure Scheffler card. Scheffler was friendly with his answer – he is almost always – but pushed that assumption again.
“I think that CARDBOARD I could look without stress, but I had two really pleasant savings in the nine backs that were important, “he said. He escaped a gnarly lie at No. 11 and held a long blow to par.
“It was a very challenging shot,” he told his second in no. 14. “Fortunately Bari was going with me, but the ball was pretty deep in the bar.”
It’s not easy. He must tell us; Otherwise we would never know.
I would imagine That the viewing of Scottie Scheffler while you are rooting for another player is a disappointing experience. Such was the case for believers in northern Ireland on Saturday. Some sets forward, with red, hot red blouse no. 2 Rory Mcilroy lit the crowd with long strokes, with flag cuffs, even some strange burying magic. His eagle in Par-5 12 gave one of the most vocal noises, he said, for his entire career. The euphoria spread from the hole to the hole, driven by good golf and good weather, a celebration like the summer and sport festival and a hero of the house.
But Scheffler, the last, heard the screams and crushed, useless, ruthless. After all, Scintillating 66 of the World No.2 won it only one shot in world no. 1.
“Scottie is the best player in the world now. I think it’s clear to everyone to see it,” Mcilroy said after the round. “He is simply so good so good every week. He removes it – it will be a long order to be able to catch it tomorrow.”
Haotong Li is Sunday’s partner in Scheffler; He is four shots in second place and said he feels like this is almost as close as he will get. “I’m really looking forward to it. Four shots back, a good game for the second, especially playing with world No. 1. I just try to play my best there and hope to do something happen,” he said.
Xander Schauffle won this tour last year; He and Scheffler are the only players with many majorities in the last four years. He traversed the Peak Golf State as “Blackout” and referred to Scheffler as an expert to get there.
“When I look at Scottie to play a lot, he just looks black for me, just doing his things. He’s just in his world and nothing will disturb him,” Schauffle said. “He goes to that place often, which is a good thing for him.”
This relentlessness looks like Scheffler’s superpower. He goes, and goes and goes again. He is closed nine directions 54 holes in a row. He has finished T8 or 10 best tournaments in a row. He has won 15 times all over the world since his last missing cut. The best materials of other pro are the usual Scheffler day. That doesn’t mean it’s easy – and I will be careful not to say so – but it means he is better in it than they are.
If you are a golf fan Apparently remember Tiger Woods ’10. The two disaster It came to the 2020 masters, played in November because of Covid. There was never a master’s most like her and Woods, the defensive champion, did something he would never have done, ping-pinging all over the 12th green road on the road to the highest score with a hole of his pro career. But Woods responded with something else he would never have done, he did not make birds five of the last six holes coming home, with no small triumph of the human soul. And playing alongside Woods that day, in the last round of his first masters? Scottie Scheffler.
Scheffler does not necessarily want to speak for himselfWhich means the best way to understand it may be to hear it describe what it likes in others. And one day last year Scheffler voluntarily a particularly penetrating monologue in the return of Woods November and why that moment stuck with it.
“He has won so many golf tournaments, and he makes a 10 in No. 12 in Augusta, and that bird of five of the last six holes and, I mean, is completely meaningless to him; at that stage of his career, what is the point?
“I just learned a lot by watching it. I mean the way he competes in this game is different than a lot of players. He sets everything he has in every blow he hits in the golf course, which I think is a really underestimated skill here. As when he opens over it, at any moment, to be seen, what is the first one. The first, which is the first, which is seen, which is the first, which is the first, which may be the first.”
What comes out is that Scheffler did not quote the physical attributes of Woods nor his perfect golf swing, but rather the idea that He puts everything he has in every blow. A thousand percent. This is not easy. It’s not easy. The attempt is the point.
On Saturday evening I asked Scheffler if he allows the mind to wander during these rounds of the tournament. If it happens, you wouldn’t know – Scheffler in general or by lighting his backyard book or on some legs directly in front of his face.
“I think it would be foolish to say you could never Let your mind wander, “said Scheffler, usually not impressed with himself.” But I think most of what I can control is the time I have when we are thinking about the goal and when I am on the ball, and most of that are simply committed to what I am doing. So I’m not thinking about the wind, I’m not thinking about how the ball will jump. I have a picture of what I want to do, and that is what I am committed to try and do happen. “
Golf works in funny ways. They played in the triple on Sunday in that 2020 masters; It was the best way to squeeze in tee time giving limited light time of year. Third supports Woods and Scheffler? Was Shane Lowry. A year ago he would win the open championship. In Royal Portrush.
Scottie Scheffler, Tiger Woods and Shane Lowry in 2020 masters.
Getty Images
Scheffler, leading from four, is following Lowry on Sunday, seeking to look for him as a portrait champion defender. He is also following Woods: not his 15 great championships, necessarily, but his shadow and his ghost and his level closed thousands of percent. The scheffler level is as high as it has ever been and is as high as anyone from Woods. And yet, it climbs higher.
“Tomorrow I will go there in the first first and try to get the ball on the right track, and when I go to the second blow I will try to get that ball in green. There is not really much else,” he said, finishing his press conference with a constriction.
Dylan Dothier is an elderly writer for Golf Magazine/Golf.com. Native Williamstown, Mass. Dothier is a graduate of Williams College, where he graduated in English, and he is the author of 18 in Americawhich details last year as an 18-year-old living out of his car and playing a round of golf in every state.
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