Scottie Scheffler had 1 phrase to sum up his worst end in almost 2 years

This week’s a recent begin for Scottie Scheffler, who stunned us all by not successful the U.S. Open final week. The truth is, Scheffler didn’t even end within the high 10, like he had in his earlier 11 begins coming into the week (5 of which had been wins).

Now he’s in Cromwell, Conn., for the Vacationers Championship at TPC River Highlands, a Signature Occasion this yr. Meaning a greater area and an even bigger purse. It additionally means a distinct fashion of golf course than what we noticed at Pinehurst No. 2. And Scheffler, primarily based on what he mentioned final week and on Wednesday on the Vacationers, is OK with that.

Three days faraway from his ultimate spherical of the U.S. Open, Scheffler was requested how he’d characterize his week. He smiled, earlier than admitting: “lengthy.”

“Only a lengthy week,” he continued. “I’d say it’s a troublesome week. I didn’t have my finest stuff and that’s a fairly tough golf course to try to make a number of birdies and play some good golf round while you don’t have your finest stuff. I feel that’s how I’d characterize it.”

Chatting with the media on Sunday, Scheffler mentioned enjoying the Memorial at a mode after all like Muirfield Village “most likely was not the perfect prep work for me coming into one other actually difficult occasion.” (Regardless of him successful it.) He struggled on Pinehurst’s tough, topped Donald Ross greens all week.

He ranked seventieth in Strokes Gained: Placing and by no means made greater than 65-feet value of putts in any spherical.

“After we come again right here in a couple of years [in 2029], I’ll most likely attempt to do much more work getting issues happening the greens,” Scheffler mentioned Sunday. “I felt like I did a number of my work across the greens this week, and possibly I wanted to do extra — the apply greens weren’t the identical pace because the course, and it was arduous to seek out one thing comparable.”

One other factor that set Pinehurst aside from different typical PGA Tour or main programs was its pesky wire grass that dotted the sandy areas off the fairways. If gamers entered there, generally it was manageable. Different occasions, it was not.

“Once I’m not enjoying my finest I really feel like certainly one of my expertise is form of managing my manner across the golf course understanding the place the misses are. When you’ve gotten just about a coin flip on whether or not or not you’re going to have a swing or not there’s probably not a facet of the golf green to overlook it on, there’s probably not areas you may play to, you simply should hit nice golf pictures,” Scheffler mentioned Wednesday. “And while you’re not hitting it nice, you already know, I really feel like that’s why I’m often in a position to compete after I don’t have my finest stuff is the best way I form of handle my manner across the golf course, and final week you’re simply not in a position to try this, simply with the character of the grass. Since you may hit it a foot off the golf green and be in a bush, and you might hit it 20 yards off the golf green and have an ideal lie that you just’re — and it performs such as you’re within the fairway.

“In order that a part of the course I didn’t love, however fairway to greens, I believed it was implausible. I believed it was an important take a look at of golf,” he continued. “It challenged us in all the precise methods. You needed to hit nice pictures with the intention to maintain the greens. Across the greens you at all times had some kind of shot since you’re enjoying out of the brief grass. So I feel generally when the tough is absolutely heavy you see guys enjoying the identical shot over and over. And a ball that runs by means of the inexperienced goes the identical distance over the inexperienced as a ball that hardly trickles. And when it’s all runoff areas which can be tightly mown you pay greater penalty for an even bigger miss, which I feel as gamers that’s all we’re searching for is to have good pictures rewarded and have unhealthy pictures punished accordingly to how unhealthy they’re.”

Scheffler’s T41 end was his worst since he was T45 on the 2022 CJ Cup, which was almost 50 tournaments in the past.

However now he’s moved on to the Vacationers, the final Signature Occasion of the season; he’s already received three of them. And though Scheffler has but to win at TPC River Highlands, his caddie has. Thrice. Ted Scott was on the bag for all three of Bubba Watson’s Vacationers wins.

“He at all times jogs my memory of that,” Scheffler joked.

Scheffler is paired with Max Homa for the primary two rounds of the Vacationers. They start the match at 10:30 a.m. ET on Thursday.

Josh Berhow

Golf.com Editor

As GOLF.com’s managing editor, Berhow handles the day-to-day and long-term planning of one of many sport’s most-read information and repair web sites. He spends most of his days writing, modifying, planning and questioning if he’ll ever break 80. Earlier than becoming a member of GOLF.com in 2015, he labored at newspapers in Minnesota and Iowa. A graduate of Minnesota State College in Mankato, Minn., he resides within the Twin Cities together with his spouse and two youngsters. You may attain him at joshua_berhow@golf.com.