Scheffler’s dominance ‘annoying’ for PGA foes
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – A swarm of fans surrounded the first tee at the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links on Thursday morning and gave a warm welcome to the players when each golfer’s name was announced.
But the loudest applause was reserved for the 10:30 a.m. tee time. Jordan Spieth, a fan favorite and the 2022 RBC Heritage champion, could feel the love, but it was his fellow playing competitor, Scottie Scheffler, who received the most rousing applause when he was introduced as the reigning Masters champion for the first time.
Scheffler acknowledged the fans and found fairway and green as one would expect from the No. 1 player in the world.
But it wasn’t always smooth sailing in the round for Scheffler, who conceded that he was battling fatigue and “definitely was mentally drained,” but he never considered withdrawing and staying at home in Dallas with wife Meredith. They are awaiting the birth of their first child this month. At the third hole, he shanked his bunker shot and made a double bogey.
“I shank it a decent amount, but never in competition,” Scheffler said. “I tried to kind of give myself a little bit of grace there. It clearly was just a mental lapse and I wasn’t quite into it yet. Tried to give myself a little bit of time.”
Frustration mounted in the middle of the round as Scheffler began hitting the ball better but his putter was cold. He rallied with two late birdies at Nos. 16 and 17 to post 2-under 69, but that left him six shots behind first-round leader J.T. Poston.
“I was maybe too settled down to start the day. I wasn’t quite into the competition,” Scheffler said. “I think today was good to get out of the way. I think getting into the heat of another tournament is good for me mentally. I’ll have a nice long break before I tee off tomorrow, so I’m going to go probably hit a few more putts, get a little bit more used to the speed of the greens and then go put my feet up the rest of the day.”
Scheffler, 27, has every right to be tired after battling windy conditions last week at the Masters. He shot a finalround 68 on Sunday at Augusta National to win a Green Jacket for the second time and claim his third victory in his past four PGA Tour starts.
“He’s just been annoying everyone for the last three months, hasn’t he?” said Matt Fitzpatrick, the 2022 U.S. Open champion.
Max Homa, who finished tied for third at the Masters, called Scheffler “one of the best players I think we’ll ever see.”
The predominant belief among the players is that the gap between Scheffler and everyone else may not be quite the size of the Grand Canyon but it’s wider than Rae’s Creek.
Wyndham Clark, the reigning U.S. Open champion, has run into the Scheffler buzzsaw on multiple occasions this season, finishing second to him at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship. (Clark missed the cut at his first Masters.)
“I do think there’s a little gap right now, and I’m hoping as I progress as a player mentally and physically and everything that maybe by the end of the year or sometime next year maybe I’ve closed that gap a little bit,” he said.
Clark is motivated to get better for future battles and is confident his best is good enough to beat Scheffler even when’s he’s playing well. But the pursuit of better is what drives him.
“I think everyone looks at themselves in the mirror and goes, what do I need to get better at, because you feel like you’re playing good golf and you’re not beating him,” Clark said. “I think it would be great if we could have multiple guys that are kind of battling it out all the time. I don’t know if that’s me or could be someone else, but I would love for it to be me, and I’m working as hard as I can to be that person.”
Homa played alongside Scheffler last year at the U.S. Open in Los Angeles and came away starstruck by Scheffler’s brilliance. He was asked if he found trying to catch Scheffler to be more daunting or challenging.
“More challenging, I would say. I think it’s inspiring. It makes you look at your game even more closely to figure out what you would do to get on his level,” Homa said. “I think because of the Tiger era when he was just running through golf tournament after golf tournament and just annihilating everybody, it was probably more daunting because we had never seen anything like that.”
Of the remaining 68 players in the RBC Heritage field, none did more to distance themselves from Scheffler on Thursday than Poston, who birdied five holes in a six-hole stretch on the front nine en route to an 8-under 63 and a two-stroke lead over Collin Morikawa and Seamus Power.
Poston’s putter sizzled as he ranked second in the field in strokes gained: putting.
“I felt like it was one of those days where if I could give myself a look, and I felt pretty confident in being able to make those putts, whether it was a close one or a 20-, 25-footer,” said Poston, who had his newborn child, Scottie, with him for the first time.
The birth of the Schefflers’ first child may be the only thing that can slow down the world No. 1. Homa, for one, was asked if he’d be in favor of a mandatory three-month paternity leave.
“No, I want to beat his ass pretty bad at some point,” he said.