Scottie Scheffler Targeted As Best In Golf As He Arrives At Pinehurst For US Open
Standing atop the golf world, Scottie Scheffler faces a new challenge this week at the US Open, where everyone will be gunning for the hottest player in the game.
pineshurst No. 2 figures to be a stern test this week, and everyone will be chasing Scheffler, the consensus best player in golf who arrives atop another summit.
The gap between Scheffler and the rest of the world ranking is at a margin not seen since the peak years of Tiger Woods.
"Every week we play, he seems to build a bigger lead and somehow make the mountain even taller for all of us to climb," PGA champion Xander Schauffele said Tuesday. "That's all he's been doing, and hats off to him for being so consistent and playing at such a high level for such a long time."
It hasn't always been this easy for Scheffler, and it still feels like hard work to him. His putting got so far out of whack last year that he brought on English putting coach Phil Kenyon to help work his way out of the problems. He is coping with being a father, his first child, Bennett, was born just over a month ago.
He is getting wearying talking about his arrest and brief jail time before the second round of the PGA Championship last month (he still shot 66) over charges he wasn't following police directions. The charges were dropped. He tied for eighth.
And he presses on, driven by the sheer joy of competition, and it must be even more fun when he leaves with the trophy.
"When we start the tournament week, we're all at even par, and it's not like anybody is out there playing defense," Scheffler said.
He will be in the US Open's traditional group of the top three players in the world on Thursday, putting him with Schauffele (No. 2) and McIlroy (No. 3).
"They're not going to be saying weird stuff to me out on the golf course or trying to block my putt from going in the hole," he said. "We all kind of got to go out there and play our game. As far as a target on my back, even if there was, there's really not much we can do in the game of golf. Most of it is against the golf course and playing against yourself."