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

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

Consequently, Scheffler has develop into the speak of the city, as followers, pundits, and his fellow gamers alike can not 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 completed, that’s when you might be at a degree that’s fairly particular,” stated LIV Golf’s Jon Rahm, who, like many others, fielded a query about Scheffler throughout his pre-tournament press convention Tuesday.

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

Photograph 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 profitable a golf event was going right into a jail cell for an hour,” joked Rory McIlroy, referencing Scheffler’s PGA Championship arrest.

“Looks as if he’s all the time in competition. Probably 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 folks 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 planet on the minute by a great distance. It’s as much as us to attempt to get to his degree.”

Scheffler’s capability to bounce again after a mistake is likely one of the most spectacular sides of his sport. At any time when 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 ultimately beat Collin Morikawa by one.

“You possibly can’t win that many tournaments or be up there on the leaderboard with out doing every part properly,” added Viktor Hovland.

“As a result of if he had holes in his sport, 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 appeared 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 believe the work that he’s put in with [his putting coach] Phil Kenyon as properly, I believe that’s an enormous a part of it. I do know they began to work after the FedExCup Playoffs final yr. Clearly, the work they’ve completed has actually been paying off.”

Photograph by Keyur Khamar/PGA Tour through Getty Photos

CBS Sports activities invited McIlroy to hitch 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 sport, 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 discovered plenty of his placing. From what I can inform, he performs some extremely strategic golf. He doesn’t go too loopy. He simply hits the appropriate photographs on the proper time. He’s actually in charge of 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 how one can 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 degree?’”

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

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

However are we now at some extent the place, like Woods in his heyday, we ask the query, ‘Is it Scheffler versus the sector?’

Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By means of. Make sure to try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You possibly can comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as properly.