OAKMONT, Pa. — Scottie Scheffler kept coming back to the same answer when asked in different ways how a day that began with optimism at the 125th U.S. Open turned into a 5 1/2-hour slog that left him well off the front page of the leaderboard.
“I’ve probably got to give myself a few more looks,” Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the Official World Golf Ranking for two-plus years, said Thursday after a 3-over-par 73 left him seven shots behind 18-hole leader J.J. Spaun.
Scheffler was talking about looks for reasonable birdie putts. Those didn’t happen nearly enough during his arduous afternoon at Oakmont Country Club. As for plain old “looks,” however, well the three-time major champion had those in abundance.
Looks of frustration, like when his drive on the par-5 12th landed in the middle of a fairway that slopes massively from left to right and kept rolling, rolling, rolling until it was in the first cut of the course’s signature ankle-deep rough.
Looks of bafflement, like when his six-foot par putt at the par-3 13th slid by, causing him to put his hand over his mouth and turn to caddie Ted Scott as if to say: “What just happened?”
Looks of anger, like when his wedge shot from 83 yards on the easy (by Oakmont standards) par-4 14th landed 40 feet past the hole. Scheffler slammed the club into the ground before collecting himself to two-putt.
Looks of annoyance. When his 12-foot birdie attempt at the par-4 17th lipped out, Scheffler bent over, pressed his hands on his knees and appeared to sigh before standing back up.
That doesn’t even include what he described as “sloppy” bogeys on the par-4 third and par-5 fourth, when he found the sand off the tee.
It added up to tying his worst opening round in a major ever. He did that at the 2021 Masters, a year before he began a run of dominance not seen since Tiger Woods’ prime two decades ago. Heck, he even managed a 1-under 69 at Oakmont as a 19-year-old amateur at the 2016 U.S. Open.
Nine years later, Scheffler’s life is very different. When he walked out of the scoring area in the late spring twilight, toddler son Bennett and wife Meredith and other members of his family were waiting.
The course, however, remains the same physically and mentally draining task it has always been.
There’s a reason Scheffler teed off at 1:25 p.m. and didn’t tap in for par on 18 until 6:52 p.m., even though there wasn’t a hint of rain, or wind or any other external factors to gum up the works. There was only Oakmont being Oakmont.
The fairways that Spaun navigated to a 4-under 66 in the morning dried up throughout the kind of muggy, sun-baked day that’s been uncommon during western Pennsylvania’s very cool and very wet spring.
Scheffler made just two putts longer than 10 feet, none over the final seven holes, and three-putted the par-3 13th.
How? He has no idea. Yet he also knows one middling round doesn’t necessarily ruin his chances of winning the third leg of the career Grand Slam after the two-time Masters champion got halfway there with last month’s PGA Championship triumph at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Play a little “sharper” in the second round at Oakmont, and he thinks he might be in a better position come the weekend.
“When you’re playing these types of tests that are this challenging, there’s usually still a way to score,” he said.
He might have to find them sooner rather than later. In each of Scheffler’s 16 PGA Tour victories — including three in his previous four tournaments coming to Oakmont — he found himself inside the top 30 after 18 holes. He’ll be outside that number when he puts his tee in the ground at No. 10 on Friday morning to start his second round in the Pittsburgh suburbs.
“I’ll clean up some of those mistakes, a couple three-putts and stuff like that,” he said. “And I think tomorrow will be a better day.”