Scottie Scheffler describing links golf is peak golf ‘nerd-dom’

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[PHOTO: Ross Parker – SNS Group]

There is a narrative in the deepest, darkest corners of Golf X/Twitter that Scottie Scheffler doesn’t have the best record ‘across the pond’. Meanwhile, he’s never missed the cut in four appearances in the Open Championship and finished in the top 10 twice. He also tied for third at the 2023 Genesis Scottish Open. Seems like he plays just fine in the UK.

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Of course, no wins. When Scheffler doesn’t win, surely something has to be wrong. But let’s be honest, it’s only a matter of time, and that time could very well be this week or the next. He’s playing as well as he ever has (nine straight top-10s), and it’s not like he doesn’t enjoy the challenge of links golf.

In fact, by the sound of it, the world No.1 loves and embraces the challenge. He was asked overnight (Australian time) if he feels he has a better chance to win the Open Championship or the US Open, as he’s already halfway to the career Grand Slam. Scheffler answered by freestyling on what makes both tournaments so different and why he thinks he has a great chance to win both some day.

“I love getting beat up at the US Open. That’s a fun battle between us and the golf course,” Scheffler said. “And coming over here, like I said, you get to do a lot of stuff I wouldn’t normally do.

“Around the greens here, for example, when we’re in the States, if we’re practising short game around the green, playing a practice round, I probably will use two clubs. I’ll use a 60-degree and a 56. Here, I’m bringing like five or six clubs, sometimes all the way down to an 8-iron.”

Scheffler went on to add that, particularly at the US Open, shots around the green are all the same – open the face of your lob wedge and play it like a bunker shot. Only in rare instances will he need that type of shot in the next two weeks.

“You get over here and I miss a green, and I’m going to go over there, assess the lie,” he said. “Sometimes I may get a really clean lie and sometimes I may get a thick lie, and with a thick lie I’ll have to do a more traditional open face with a 60, play like a bunker shot. Again, a clean lie, and I may be using an 8-iron to pitch up the slope or maybe a 50-degree depending how much pitch there is in the slope. Over here, there’s just more options, and it’s just a little bit of a different test than some of the tests we see at home.”

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Scheffler’s description sounded eerily similar to the way former world No.1 Tiger Woods once described links golf in his episode of “Chronicles of a Champion Golfer”, which can be viewed on YouTube, free of charge. Here’s a clip of the two of them spliced together:

Peak golf nerd-dom. The good stuff. Drink it in these next two weeks, folks. It’s possibly the best two weeks on the schedule.