PGA Tour, LIV Golf professionals reward Scottie Scheffler at U.S. Open

Scottie Scheffler arrives at Pinehurst No. 2 as a large 3-to-1 favourite, astonishingly low odds not seen because the mid-2000s, when Tiger Woods dominated the game.

Consequently, Scheffler has turn into the speak of the city, as followers, pundits, and his fellow gamers alike can’t cease buzzing about what the reigning Masters champion has completed this season. He has 5 wins already, essentially the most earlier than the U.S. Open since 1980. He additionally has completed no worse than a tie for seventeenth, which got here on the American Specific in January.

His superior statistics are off-the-charts spectacular, too.

“If you begin getting in comparison with Tiger and issues that Tiger has performed, that’s when you recognize you’re at a stage that’s fairly particular,” mentioned LIV Golf’s Jon Rahm, who, like many others, fielded a query about Scheffler throughout his pre-tournament press convention Tuesday.

“To win 5 instances in a season… And successful the tournaments, he’s successful. To win Bay Hill, The Gamers, Masters, RBC [Heritage], after which the Memorial, you’re principally replicating a Tiger Woods season. It’s implausible to see. He’s been taking part in implausible golf and doing what he must do.”

Picture by Andrew Redington/Getty Photos

Everyone seems to be speaking about Scheffler as a result of no participant has had a season like this since Woods was in his prime.

“The truth that the one factor that took him from successful a golf match was going right into a jail cell for an hour,” joked Rory McIlroy, referencing Scheffler’s PGA Championship arrest.

“Looks like he’s all the time in rivalry. Essentially the most thrilling factor about final week on the Memorial was when he made the triple on 9 [on Saturday]. Everybody was like, ‘Oh, appears to be like like he may let individuals in right here,’ however he finds a strategy to regular the ship and make just a few birdies when he must. Undoubtedly the perfect participant on the earth on the minute by a good distance. It’s as much as us to attempt to get to his stage.”

Scheffler’s capacity to bounce again after a mistake is likely one of the most spectacular sides of his recreation. Every time he misses a brief putt or hits an errant tee shot, he all the time appears to bounce again, simply as he did at Muirfield Village final week to finally beat Collin Morikawa by one.

“You may’t win that many tournaments or be up there on the leaderboard with out doing all the things effectively,” added Viktor Hovland.

“As a result of if he had holes in his recreation, he wouldn’t carry out in addition to he would.”

Earlier than the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, quite a few pundits knocked Scheffler for his struggles on the greens. He regarded shaky with the putter and did not convert loads of alternatives earlier within the yr.

However then he switched to a mallet putter at Bay Hill and has been tearing aside the PGA Tour since.

“He tried the Spider [putter] final summer season for a few tournaments,” added McIlroy.

“However I feel the work that he’s put in with [his putting coach] Phil Kenyon as effectively, I feel that’s a giant a part of it. I do know they began to work after the FedExCup Playoffs final yr. Clearly, the work they’ve performed has actually been paying off.”

Picture by Keyur Khamar/PGA Tour through Getty Photos

CBS Sports activities invited McIlroy to affix the printed on the Genesis Invitational at Riviera in February. In doing so, McIlroy famous that Scheffler ought to change from a blade to a mallet putter, which helped his personal recreation, too.

However that change elevated Scheffler to a brand new stratosphere, as he now appears to be like unstoppable.

“From my perspective, he’s received full management of his golf swing. He’s found out a whole lot of his placing. From what I can inform, he performs some extremely strategic golf. He doesn’t go too loopy. He simply hits the best photographs on the proper time. He’s actually accountable for the atmosphere, not solely his atmosphere however the circumstances on the golf course,” defined LIV Golf’s Bryson DeChambeau.

“He is aware of what the golf ball goes to do. He is aware of learn how to react accordingly. When issues go proper, he can proper the ship fairly shortly. That’s only a recipe for achievement, and he’s been capable of do it longer than anybody has for a very long time. He’s the gold normal proper now, and we’re all trying as much as him going, ‘All proper, how will we get to that stage?’”

Little doubt that Scheffler is at present in a league of his personal.

The percentages replicate that, and his fellow gamers agree with that evaluation, too.

However are we now at a degree the place, like Woods in his heyday, we ask the query, ‘Is it Scheffler versus the sphere?’

Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By means of. Be sure you take a look at @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You may comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as effectively.