As the U.S. Open begins, Scottie Scheffler is on a different level

Washington Post

a day ago

OAKMONT, Pa. — The shot doesn't matter. It could be on the driving range, the first tee box or the 18th fairway — a quiet practice round at home or the Sunday of a major championship. Scottie Scheffler doesn't go off-script.
Those 15-20 seconds before he approaches the ball are always the same. He fiddles with his grip, until the club settles properly into the grooves of his hands. He locks eyes on the ball. Everything else disappears as he plants his feet in the ground.
'He has the most intense concentration that I've ever seen on every shot,' says fellow tour pro Kevin Kisner, 'and he makes sure that he's in the zone on every shot. That's something that, in my eyes, I always look back at Tiger Woods in his heyday, and that's what he did as well.'
The Tiger comparisons have increased, because nothing else is analogous. Scheffler keeps showing that he's a generational star. The only question that follows him these days: What exactly is his ceiling?
Scheffler won three of the past four tournaments he entered, including last month's PGA Championship. He's the overwhelming favorite in this week's U.S. Open, and the chatter around Oakmont Country Club isn't whether Scheffler might win his fourth career major; it's how much he could win by. His game seems tailored for this burly course, and the golf literati have already noted that Scheffler could complete a career Grand Slam with wins here and at the British Open next month.
Just listen to his fellow competitors, their words tinged with a mix of awe and resignation, wondering whether the best they can hope for is second place when the 28-year old Texan is on his game.
'It's effortless,' said Justin Thomas, a two-time major champion. 'Every single aspect of his game is unbelievable. I think his mental game is better than anybody out here. To be able to play with those expectations and to stay present as often as he has, to me, is maybe more impressive than even the golf he's playing.'
'What impresses me the most is his club face control is elite,' said Jordan Spieth, who has won three major titles. 'It's maybe the best there's ever been as far as club face control. So his consistency is ridiculous. And then that just leads to his distance control being phenomenal.'
Every part of Scheffler's game is suddenly elite. Even the critics who moaned about his putting not long ago have been silenced. The two-time Masters champion leads the tour this season in both strokes gained off the tee and strokes gained approach. He's 25th in strokes gained putting — up from 77th last season. Overall, Scheffler is gaining an average of 2.687 strokes per round over his competitors, the best mark by anyone not named Tiger since 2000.
Smylie Kaufman, the golfer turned NBC analyst, said Scheffler enters this U.S. Open with 'no weaknesses in his game.'
'What Scottie does an incredible job of doing is his bad days, he shoots 70,' Kaufman said. 'And Tiger Woods used to do the exact same thing. … When you look at all the top players in the game right now, how many times have you seen Rory McIlroy or Xander Schauffele or Justin Thomas shoot rounds of 76 or higher on major championship Thursday rounds and all of a sudden they're out of it? Scottie Scheffler doesn't do that.'
The separation from the field is hard to ignore, but Scheffler sometimes still talks like the wide-eyed amateur who first played the U.S. Open as a 19-year old qualifier in 2016. The event was staged at Oakmont that year, too, and with his sister, Callie, carrying his bag, Scheffler posted an opening-round 69 and actually held the overnight lead after play was suspended because of rain. (He shot a 78 the next day to miss the cut.)
Count Jack Nicklaus among those most impressed with the way Scheffler carries himself on and off the course. He watched him again up close last month when Scheffler defended his title at Nicklaus's Memorial Tournament in Ohio.
'He reminds me so much of the way I like to play,' Nicklaus said. 'I don't think I played nearly as well as he played. He's playing better than I played and more consistent.'
Scheffler is consistent from shot to shot, hole to hole and tournament to tournament. He hasn't finished outside the top 10 in three months. A hand injury from a Christmas Day kitchen accident resulted in a relatively slow start to the year, but now Scheffler is only gaining momentum.
Sportsbook odds have pegged him as a +280 favorite this week — meaning a $100 bet would pay out $280 — making him the shortest U.S. Open favorite since Woods was +175 in 2009. Not surprisingly, Scheffler hasn't noticed. He's already locked in on his first tee shot Thursday afternoon.
'I don't pay attention to the favorite stuff or anything like that,' he said this week. 'Starting Thursday morning we're at even par and it's up to me to go out there and play against the golf course and see what I can do.'
Matt Bonesteel contributed to this report.