One other day, one other under-par spherical for Scottie Scheffler.
He performed flawlessly at the Memorial on Thursday, and his rating ought to have been a lot decrease than the 5-under 67 he posted.
Scheffler missed a number of good birdie seems to be over his first few holes, then had an ill-advised miss on the par-5 fifth, resulting in a bogey. However as Scheffler defined afterward, a large chunk of mud sat on the best aspect of his ball within the fifth fairway, which pressured his strategy to overlook 40 yards left.
“Due to the mud on the ball, you’ve gotten completely no management over the place it’s going to go,” Scheffler defined.
“I felt like we tried to do the most effective we might to get it up there someplace, however yeah, you simply can’t management it.”
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However in true Scheffler vogue, he didn’t let that hassle him. As a substitute, he carried himself like he normally does, as the most effective participant on the earth ought to, and made 4 extra birdies on the again 9.
“Going out this morning, we had a little bit softer greens, a little bit softer fairways, and I used to be capable of put up a great rating,” Scheffler assessed.
“It felt like I hit a whole lot of high quality pictures at the moment. It felt like my ball hanging was actually good, and I used to be capable of gap a number of putts as nicely, so total, I used to be fairly happy with the spherical at the moment.”
His most spectacular birdie of the day got here on his final gap, the troublesome par-4 18th.
The 18th ranked as probably the most difficult gap on Thursday, enjoying 0.36 pictures above par. It yielded solely 9 birdies whereas producing eight double bogies or worse. Victor Perez of France even ended his promising spherical with a triple, due to a comedy of errors in entrance of this elevated placing floor.
However, Scheffler made it look simple. He hit his greatest tee shot of the day proper down the center of the golf green, leaving solely 138 yards into this 478-yard par-4.
He then caught a wedge to 18 inches and calmly tapped in for his sixth birdie of the day, quickly giving him sole possession of the lead.
“I really feel like I’m at all times making an attempt to remain as affected person as attainable,” Scheffler defined.
“Whether or not or not you’re capturing actually low scores or capturing round par, I believe I’m at all times making an attempt to plot my method across the golf course for certain.”
Scheffler now enters Friday’s spherical trailing Adam Hadwin by a stroke. However by the tip of the second spherical, it might shock no person if Scheffler held the solo lead. He’s enjoying in a league of his personal, and no person appears to be significantly near him—like Jack Nicklaus within the late 60s and early 70s.
Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By way of. Make sure you try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You’ll be able to comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as nicely.
