Scottie Scheffler reveals the one thing that frustrates him most in the whole world of golf

Daily Record

19-06-2025

World No.1 pinpoints the biggest irritation that gets his back up
Top-gun Scottie Scheffler has revealed the most frustrating thing he faces in golf.
And the World No.1 has also opened-up on the key week that set him up to become the best in the business.
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Scheffler is king of the game at the moment with an astounding 16 Tour wins, including three majors, during a stunning three-year surge to the top of golf. He is now the clear man to beat, but it doesn't always go to plan and he let frustrations out at the US Open last week with a club banged into the deck in annoyance and a feisty exchange with coach Randy Smith on the driving range during his tournament.
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Following the gruelling shift at Oakmont where only one player out of 156 in the field managed to finish under-apr after four rounds, the American ace and the likes of Rory McIlroy play the Travelers Championship this week at TPC River Highlands. Twelve months ago, Scheffler smashed a staggering 22-under for his week and it still wasn't enough to win as he then needed a play-off success over pal Tom Kim to land the trophy.
When it was put to him that that this week's course is too easy for the elite, he responded: 'Golf's funny in that sense. People, when they watch golf, it's not like other sports where you want us to look like y'all when we play golf. You watch the NBA and you're like: I wish they couldn't dunk. I wish they were scoring less. I wish their shooting percentage was lower on 3-pointers. If you watch tennis, you're like: Man I wish the ball was going slower so they look like me out there playing tennis. It's not like that.
'As much as some people want us to feel like them, professional golf is different than amateur golf. We get a lot of time to prepare to go out and play. The guys out here are really good. If you stand on the driving range and watch a range session, that ball doesn't go off line very often.
'I think sometimes, especially in this day and age, people get way too caught up in the winning score being what is a proper test. I think a proper test is good shots being rewarded and bad shots being punished. I think this is one of the best golf courses for that.
'There's opportunity out there and there's also punishment. That's what we look for in golf courses. You want good shots to be rewarded and bad shots to be punished. It's as simple as that.
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'The winning score, I think people get way too caught up in. I'm not saying necessarily that even par is a bad winning score. Some weeks like the US Open, you hit two great shots and you're going to get rewarded with a par. That's fine. That's good too.
'Across the board, the way we get tested in professional golf is very good. We play different types of golf courses, different types of grass, we play different types of winning scores. We just see different tests and I think not one is better than the other.
'The most frustrating thing for me when I play a golf tournament is when you see good shots not getting rewarded and bad shots not being punished properly. That's all we look for. Do we care that 22-under wins this week? No.
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'I played good last year and, if they somehow change it to 12-under by making the pins in silly spots and doing things to trick up the golf course, what we want is a fair test. I think having birdies at the end sometimes is a pretty exciting finish. That's really all there is to it.'
Scheffler, meanwhile, has words for new US Open champ JJ Spaun as he recounted the moment that got him ready to be an elite winner, being picked for a United States debut and playing at the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits.
He said: 'I think after winning a major championship, the first time you come back out to the course is a bit of a circus sometimes just with all the people. JJ just achieved kind of a lifetime goal and dream of his. It's definitely different coming to the golf course for sure. There's a lot more people, a lot more stuff to sign, a lot of stuff that goes on.
'I just think it will be a bit of a different experience for him. There's a lot of stuff that goes on. It's all good things. It's all stuff that's fun. He'll certainly be sitting here in the interview room a lot more than he has in the past. Having that experience under your belt of winning the tournament, that's the most pressure he's felt in his entire career and he stepped up and made amazing shots down the stretch. Having that confidence and experience going forward is going to serve him really well, not only knowing he can perform under the biggest pressure, but now he knows exactly what it feels like. When he can go practice at home, now you're preparing knowing exactly how you feel in those scenarios.
'That was one of the biggest things I learned after the Ryder Cup was having that experience and knowing what it feels like under pressure and then have the ability to go home and prepare for that.'