In the last few years it has taken a telescope to see anything which is wrong for Scottie Scheffler’s golf game. Still, he left last week’s US Open lamenting one troubling course: all season he has been, by his standards, a slow player, seeing the leaders beat before playing weekend action.
“This year I didn’t have many people with 36 holes anywhere 54 holes,” he said.
However, that did not last long.
Just five days later, Scheffler owns the 36-hole lead in the Traveler Championship. After Thursday’s round of six-under 64 he set the place on fire Friday morning, making 11 birdies against one bogey en route to a 10-under 60 and a two-round record at 16 under par.
He leads by two over Viktor Hovland, who could only manage a 9-under 61.
Scheffler is right about his season trends: he’s in the top three in points in his second, third and final rounds on Tour this year but is 57th in his first rounds. This week he improved on both his Thursday and Friday grades.
Scheffler had a few interesting takeaways following a flurry of birds.
Mostly he had squandered his personal dominance, erasing the difference between a good round and a great one as a matter of a few holed putts.
“Some days they hang on the edge and don’t fit in well, and other days they find the bottom of the cup.
Scheffler would have become only the second player in tour history to break 60 twice, though he admitted he doesn’t remember much about his 59 at TPC Boston in 2020.
“I wish my golf memory was better, to be honest with you. I remember the end of that round, the birdie putt I made on 18, but other than that, I don’t remember much.”
He joked that shooting a 59 here wouldn’t make him that happy, knowing that Jim Furyk shot a 58.
“It was kind of funny. It was like, ‘Yeah, it would be nice to shoot a 59, but someone has already shot a 58 here, so it’s not a course record,'” he said. “You know, Jim takes a little bit of a special 59 if you lose a little bit.”
And share a favorite quote from the world of golf.
“There’s an old saying in golf that you’ve got to be really smart or really dumb. I don’t want to call myself stupid, but like, my long-term memory isn’t that sharp. Maybe it’s a little easier to put some things behind me,” he said. He added that he’ll go back and watch old film of his golf swing when he needs clues – “looking for feelings and the kind of things you like – but mostly he’s enjoying living in the moment.
In the end he gently dismissed another golfer: that it is difficult to support one great round with another good one.
