'Absolute, true mastery': Scottie Scheffler goes low, takes British Open lead to weekend
'Tiger Woodsdid this, Jack Nicklaus did this, and I think it's a testament to the truest mastery, the absolute height of the game, and it's so rare that you see someone take this game to a level where there is no past, there is no future, they're just completely in the moment,' Golf Channel's Brandel Chamblee said. 'What we've seen the last two days is absolute, true mastery.'
After shooting 68 on Thursday despite hitting only three fairways, Scheffler found the short grass more often and his putter, which had been more foe than friend on slower greens than he is used to last week in Scotland, heated up. He ranks second in Strokes Gained: putting this week. It added up to his 19th career 36-hole lead or co-lead on Tour and fourth this season. Scheffler, who won the PGA Championship for his third career major in May, is poised to win a third leg of the career Grand Slam. Not even a wild weather day could slow him down as he improved to a 36-hole total of 10-under-par 132.
'It was super sunny when we were on the driving range, I'm out there in short sleeves, it's warm out. Then we get to the 1st hole, it's still sunny. Then all of a sudden, you look around and it's super dark and it starts pouring rain,' he said. 'You're like, boy, I wonder how long this is going to last.'
Matt Fitzpatrick, the 2022 U.S. Open champ, would like his run of good form to continue for at least two more days. He opened with rounds of 67 and 66 as he attempts to become the first Englishman since Nick Faldo 33 years ago to win the British Open. Fitzpatrick will be paired alongside Scheffler in the final group on Saturday but said the pressure will be on Scheffler.
'He's going to have the expectation to go out and dominate. He's an exceptional player. He's World No. 1, and we're seeing Tiger-like stuff. I think the pressure is for him to win the golf tournament,' Fitzpatrick said. 'For me obviously I hope I'm going to have some more home support than him, but it's an exciting position for me to be in given where I was earlier this year.'
Scheffler and Fitzpatrick have company from Brian Harman (65) and Haotong Li (67), who are two back. Harman won the 2023 British Open and looks to have regained the form that allowed him to cruise to the title two years ago.
Making his move.Scottie Scheffler is into the joint lead. pic.twitter.com/nGy4mVP4oE
'One of my favorite traits about Brian is when people count him out and don't believe he can do something, it almost motivates him more to be that bulldog,' Golf Channel's Johnson Wagner said. 'He's a gritty guy, he's a little undersized so people always underestimate him like they did at [the 2023 Open] and he just slammed the door on them. I wouldn't count Brian out just yet.'
Further down the leaderboard is a party of five at 5 under, including Dane Rasmus Hojgaard, Englishman Tyrrell Hatton (the top LIV contender), Scotland's Robert MacIntyre and Americans Harris English and Chris Gotterup. Hojgaard's twin brother, Nicolai, and Tony Finau are a shot further back at 4 under and T-10.
Among those lurking at 3 under include Northern Ireland's own Rory McIlroy and U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley.
'I'm excited for that opportunity,' McIlroy said. 'I didn't have this opportunity six years ago, so to play an extra two days in this atmosphere in front of these crowds, I'm very excited for that. I feel like my game's definitely good enough to make a run.'
Bryson DeChambeau rallied to make the cut on the number with a 65 on Friday. Seventy golfers advanced to the weekend with a 36-hole total of 1-over 143 or better. Among those sent packing were Collin Morikawa, who for the first time in his career failed to record a top 10 at a major; Patrick Cantlay, who missed his third cut in a row at a major; LIV's Joaquin Niemann and Australian Adam Scott.
The Claret Jug and the honor to be called Champion Golfer of the Year still is very much up for grabs but it won't be easy to chase down world No. 1.
'It would not surprise me at all if he leaves everyone in the rearview mirror,' Chamblee said.
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PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — The 153rd British Open attracted some 280,000 fans to Royal Portrush Golf Club, where the breezes off the Atlantic Ocean were cooling and calming for most of the Championship. You never know who you will see at the majors. World Golf Hall of Fame member Colin Montgomerie, who played in the Open 22 times and finished second in 2005, was waving the flag for whiskey maker Loch Lomond, the official spirit of the Open Championship. "We produce a special Open edition," Montgomerie explained. "I think the tagline, 'the Spirit of the Open,' is great, and the relationship has grown and grown. Whiskey and golf are Scotland's two great exports, really. We got the home of golf, and with the home of whiskey and they were very proud of both of those exports to the world and nice for me to be associated with both of them, really, golf and whisky." The now 62-year-old Scot, an eight-time Order of Merit champion on the DP World Tour, was kind enough to take some time to answer a wide array of questions from Golfweek. GWK: What is your favorite links course? CM: The best links course in Britain is Turnberry. By, I think, a wide margin and it's such a shame that the Open isn't there, you know, it's difficult. But it's been redone and redone, and now it's seventh and eighth holes have changed again, and it's fantastic. GWK: Do you have a favorite Open championship venue? CM: Has to be St. Andrews. I'm not talking at all about the golf course. I'm talking about the town, the university, the whole field, the whole sense of occasion, the romance of it, the romance of St Andrews is very special. It's knowing that everyone's done it and everyone will do it after you. It's a very special occasion. It's amazing how these guys back in 1800 and something designed something that still is being played to this day, when the game is so different than what it was. GWK: I was telling a friend back in the States that I was going to be chatting with you, and he wanted me to ask you what prompted you to leave New Mexico Military Institute and go to Houston Baptist University? CM: It was less than 10 days. It was a good 48 hours. Unfortunately, it was more military than I was expecting. My roommate managed to get me out to the local Greyhound station in Roswell, New Mexico. The Greyhound bus took me up to Albuquerque about 200 miles through the night and my father said get the first flight to a major American city. There were four flights that morning. There was San Francisco, L.A., Houston or Dallas, and the first flight was Houston. So, I picked it. I land in Houston, and a long story short, it was through a member of my golf club in West Yorkshire, the vicar, actually. He worked with Alan Shepard, the astronaut, and all the people who used to come over from NASA in Houston to train with our Royal Air Force. A friend of a friend of a friend made a call and suddenly Houston Baptist University sprung up because Alan Shepard knew the athletic director, a guy called Ed Billings, lovely fella, and of course, he knew the golf coach there, and the golf coach came to the hotel I was staying at, the Doubletree Inn in Houston. I was a walk-on for the first year, so I didn't get a scholarship as such; I had to earn my right, which I did, and then the next three years I was on the team, you know, with the scholarship. So it was a bizarre story but it wasn't as easy then as it is now for foreign students to be recruited. In my day, back in the very early 80s, you were on your own, so it was difficult. So that's how that worked. GWK: Tell me about the time period where you considered attempting to be an agent rather than a professional golfer? CM: I was finishing my degree at Houston Baptist University. It's now Houston Christian University. I graduated in May '87. So it was a year before I graduated, and I wanted to explore what I wanted to do for a career. And the Open was at Turnberry in '86. I'd asked IMG for an interview to try and be an agent to use my degree, which was a marketing degree, and market the likes of Nick Price, Greg Norman, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Corey Pavin, Ray Floyd. I think the big three was still in operation, and all IMG clients. And so I thought this was great, and I would work in the Texas area and try and get deals and to try and become an agent. So, two executives, one, Ian Todd, who was the president of IMG, and Peter German, who's still working for IMG, I believe he's in his 80s now, asked me to join them for the back nine at Turnberry. This is the Monday after the Open finished, so the pins are in the same positions, you know how it goes. I drove my mom's car, I'll never forget, out to the lighthouse at Turnberry and played the back nine in with them. I treated it like a job interview so I watched my Ps and Q's. You say yes or no, sir. You know, a job interview, right? And I wasn't interested in the golf. We were just playing nine holes. Anyway, started at the 10th and made birdie and I think I chipped in at 11, and then I sort of hole a bunker shot at 13 and long story short, I hole a good putt at the last for a three and came back in 29. 6-under par! And they looked at each other on the green, and we all shook hands and I was expecting to be told, 'Well, we'll be in touch' sort of thing, you know? And they said, "Well, Colin, you're not going to work for us. We're going to work for you." And that was it. And this is why that nine holes is the reason I'm speaking to you now. I come from a very sort of conservative background, which amateur golf was the key. The Walker Cup was more important than the Ryder Cup. I gave pro golf two years and let's see how it goes. I got my card and then I joined IMG immediately afterwards, and they've looked after me and here we are ever since, I'm still with them. So, we all have that two hours in our life or right time, right place, in your life, or whatever — you might meet your partner — this was my time for life to change. GWK: What made you such a great Ryder Cup player? CM: I was born with great ambition, right? As we all are, I suppose, you know, we're ambitious to succeed in everything. The truth is I hated to lose much more than I liked to win. Winning was winning, it was OK, but like Scottie Scheffler has been saying recently about winning, it's OK, but what's next, you know? And that was me. I won the odd event, but what was next? So I didn't really celebrate the wins, but I hated the losses. So, I suppose that drove me at the Ryder Cup. I also putted very well in the Ryder Cup. A good match player is a good putter, right? And I always was at the Ryder Cup, I always hit the ball a foot harder on the greens. Now I'm going to give a tip to anyone that might be reading this: If you hit the ball a foot harder on the greens, it's amazing how many go in. And I had that freedom in the Ryder Cup because it was match play. If it didn't work, I lost the hole. But in stroke playing, if I had three putted, it was a bogey and it was, oh God, the next hole got to get this back, it was more of an issue. GWK: Why do you think the Europeans do better in the Ryder Cup? CM: That's a question that everybody would love to answer, and I suppose the Americans would love to answer, too, because they would do it, you know, more. I mean, our success is beyond our world rankings. We shouldn't have had the success we had. We go into the Ryder Cup always as underdogs on the basis of world ranking points. And yet we've won more than we've lost over the last 15-20 Ryder Cups. And why? I think we've got this good mentality where we're playing for each other. We sort of played as a team, you know? When I was captain in 2010, I always felt it was great that everyone on my team contributed at least half a point to the victory, and that was good for them. They contributed, so they felt that they had helped their teammates, and their teammates had helped them. And I think that's the main thing, I think we really had this this family feel. Financially, it was very important for us to win. The might of the American tour could cope with the odd Ryder Cup loss but the European Tour was struggling financially. So it was important that we could do as well as we did. I think it was that team ethos, whereby we played for each other. We came together, we left our egos at the door, hit them up on the way out, that type of feel. GWK: What's your theory on why Phil and Tiger had pedestrian records in the Ryder Cup? CM: Well, Tiger's single record was very good because he's on his own. But it was always difficult to partner him. Back in 1993, when Nick Faldo was No. 1 in the world, we were partners and his ball was stamped Faldo on the side and it was his ball, of course. I think the same happened with America. I think Tiger wasn't changing his golf ball. You played Tiger's ball. And it said, Tiger on it. And you start thinking, hang on, I better not lose this, better not put this in a bush. I think a lot of the people playing with Tiger, I think they probably froze or didn't play to their ability or didn't play to their potential. I found that difficult with Nick, where it was his ball. And I felt like an understudy. Oh, I was an understudy. I was almost a rookie. So it's difficult for that. And I think that was a reason. And playing with Phil must have had that feeling as well, and it was difficult to find a partner for them both that would cope with the pressure because you go out with Tiger, you're expected to win. He's the best. And it's sometimes difficult if you're expected to win, it's the hardest thing to do. Expectation is the hardest thing to do in sport to win. GWK: What's the hero shot that you think back on where you pulled it off to win a tournament and had that incredible feeling of, yes, I did it? CM: I've got one plaque in the world. It's in the Middle East, it's in Dubai at the Emirates Club. In 1996, I was leading by one on the last hole against Miguel Angel Jimenez, and at the time I had a 6-iron in my hand to lay up short of the lake guarding the green. It was into the wind, and of course, 1996, the balls and the clubs weren't going quite as far as they do now. My caddie, Alistair McLean, wanted me to lay up, and then I'd still have a chance to make birdie. I asked him, 'So, how far is it?' He told me 223 and that I'm not going to make it with a 3-wood, I'd have to use a driver. I said, 'Christ, hang on.' I put my driver behind the ball and had a look at it, it looked OK. I could do it, you know? And, so he said, "Right, we'll go for it." And it was a terrible risk because it could have gone horribly wrong. It just happened to come out of the middle of the bat. Luckily, it was high and it stopped within 8 feet of the hole hitting driver off the deck. They put a plaque there for me. Canon, the camera-maker, used to sponsor our shot of the year and it won for 1996. So I was proud of that. GWK: Opposite end of the spectrum, what were you thinking at the last hole at Winged Foot in the 2006 U.S. Open when you made double bogey to lose? CM: It was just it was just one of those things. I'm convinced that that shot, if I played it in real time I'd have won the U.S. Open. I had to wait for my playing partner, Vijay Singh, who had hit it left of left into two hospitality tents and needed a drop. Anyway, long story short, it took nine minutes, I was told, it felt an hour, but it took nine minutes to play his second shot. Meanwhile, yours truly is on the fairway wanting to play. It was a 7-iron, then it was a 6-iron, then it was a 7-iron. It was almost impossible for nine minutes to be positive all that time. And I just unfortunately caught it slightly heavy and put it in position Z, right bunker in front of the green, and it was an awful place. And yes, if there was one shot I'd love back, it was that one, but at the same time you've got to play 72 holes and not just 71 of them, I'm afraid. Nowadays, I think I would have just gone up and actually hit it. There's no penalty for hitting when you feel it's appropriate to do so, there's no penalty for it. You're just trying to play by the etiquette of the game that it's his shot first. But actually, I wish I could go back and just walk up to my ball and hit 7-iron below the hole. It was almost too easy. The pin was on the right-hand side, I faded the ball, so, it was almost easier to birdie the hole than it was to make a six, you know? But there you go. GWK: Why were you considered by the media to be one of the best interviews in golf on Tuesday and Wednesday but tough to deal with after the bell rang? CM: I was just in my job, I suppose. If I have a regret, I would love to go back and be less impatient. I wanted it too much, I wanted success for me, for my family, and I wanted to progress in life and give them a lifestyle and myself as well. If I went back, I'd loved to be more patient and that would have made me a little less heated on the golf course, if you like, or, you know, that pressurized way that I used to play, you know? I wish I was slightly more relaxed. GWK: I know you won that the Accenture Match Play when it was an 'unofficial' tournament in the U.S, but did it bother you that you didn't get an official PGA Tour win? CM: I suppose. You know, they always say, oh, he never won in America and all this sort of stuff. I did OK in Europe. I beat a few of them, and I mean, I did win that match play. You know, I beat Davis Love in the final and Ernie Els in the semifinal. I count that as a victory because they were better than I was. It was nice, to put it this way, to finally achieve it in my 50s at the Senior PGA Championship. I was 51 at the time, 2014, when I won at Benton Harbor. It meant a lot to me to actually get that monkey off of my back, if you know what I mean, but, yeah, hey, you've got to be fortunate as well to win. It's not easy. GWK: If you had one last round, where would you want it to be? CM: My home club, Sunningdale (in England). That's where we live and it's the most beautiful walk. Forget the golf — almost. It makes you want to borrow a couple of Labrador dogs and carry a bag around and just love the walk more than the game of golf. Sunningdale is a beautiful spot. It's our Pine Valley, really, and that's the highest compliment I can give it.
