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Daily Record
19-06-2025
- Sport
- Daily Record
Scottie Scheffler reveals the one thing that frustrates him most in the whole world of golf
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. 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. 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. '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. '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.'
Yahoo
15-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Scottie Scheffler visibly frustrated with swing coach after poor Friday US Open round
The post Scottie Scheffler visibly frustrated with swing coach after poor Friday US Open round appeared first on ClutchPoints. The US Open is underway at Oakmont Country Club outside of Pittsburgh. JJ Spaun took the 18-hole lead after a difficult Thursday, and Friday did not prove to be much easier. Scottie Scheffler came into the US Open as the overwhelming favorite, but started with a disappointing 73. He followed that up with a 71 on Friday to sit at four-over par. Scheffler hit the range after his round, where cameras caught his frustration boiling over. Scheffler, his swing coach Randy Smith, and his caddie Ted Scott are all in this video. But most of the confrontation comes between Scheffler and Smith. The defending PGA Champion was frustrated with the results of his swings all day, and it does not appear to have cleared up on the range. Advertisement On Friday, Scheffler hit six of the 14 fairways and seven of the 18 greens en route to a one-over 71. The US Open is a trying test that requires precision with the driver and irons. Scheffler did not have that on Friday, but did save his round with solid putting. His 2.29 strokes gained putting is among the best in the field. The US Open has not seen many players shoot under par. Sam Burns' 65 on Friday is just the 12th 65 or better at Oakmont in the ten total championships held at the venue. Scheffler won at Quail Hollow, where running down birdies is a key to winning the tournament. That is not the objective at Oakmont, and it has cost Scheffler. All of that said, Scheffler is far from out of it. With a great round on Saturday, he could flip the script just like Burns did Friday. But with his frustrations growing and birdies hard to come by, he could be in for another tough finish at the US Open. Last year, he finished T41 at Pinehurst. Related: Rory McIlroy trolled by fans amid putrid U.S. Open performance Related: Jordan Spieth makes tough admission after first round at Oakmont
Washington Post
15-06-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
Scottie Scheffler is fighting his swing at the U.S. Open. He's hanging around anyway
OAKMONT, Pa. — Scottie Scheffler arrived at Oakmont with his swing in a good place. Wherever that place was, it's gone. Temporarily, at least. While world's top-ranked player put together his best round of the week at the U.S. Open on Saturday by firing an even-par 70 to remain at 4 over, he knows tracking down good friend and third-round leader Sam Burns eight shots ahead might require the kind of crisp, clean golf Scheffler has struggled to produce over 54 holes. 'Am I in the position I had hoped to be after three days? Obviously not,' Scheffler said. 'But for the way I've swung it and played the last few days, I feel like I could be a lot worse.' Such is the level that the 28-year-old star finds himself at that, during feels like an 'off week,' he will head to the course on Sunday on the front page of the leaderboard, albeit at the bottom. 'For me to be sitting where I am this week, not having really my best stuff, I think is pretty good,' Scheffler said. It's not like Scheffler hasn't been searching for it. He hit the practice range shortly after a 71 on Friday, then proceeded to have an animated session with longtime coach Randy Smith. Scheffler waved his arms at times, clearly frustrated by the results. Asked about it, Scheffler shrugged and called the whole thing 'pretty regular,' and it should be pointed out that the practice range at most tournaments doesn't sit next to the media center as it does at Oakmont. Scheffler admitted the session ended without much progress, though Smith shared some thoughts that 'definitely helped.' Still, the 'silly mistakes' that have dogged him this week prevented him from making a legitimate move. He missed a 2-footer for par on the par-3 eighth. He hit it into the native area along the left side of the ninth fairway, forcing him to take a drop. He bounced back on the back nine. Stuffing a wedge to 10 inches on the par-5 12th for birdie. A drive into the fairway bunker on the par-4 14th led to a bogey, but he responded by birdieing the short par-4 17th. When he tapped in for par on 18, he'd inched up the leaderboard on a day he knew he needed to leap up it. On Sunday, Scheffler might need to go full Johnny Miller in 1973 to track down Burns. Considering the way Scheffler has played this season, maybe there's reason for optimism, even when things aren't coming as easily as he's made it look. 'I've had three days where I haven't really had my swing, and I've been battling out there and still have a chance, albeit an outside chance,' he said. 'But still a chance.' Carlos Ortiz was in danger of missing the cut when he began the second round by shooting a 5-over 40 on the front nine. Twenty-seven holes and 30-ish hours later, the 34-year-old from Guadalajara, Mexico, will go out in one of the final groups after firing a 3-under 67 in the third round. Heady territory for a player who came to Oakmont having made the cut just twice in nine major appearances. Ortiz, who won the Houston Open in 2020 before joining LIV Golf in 2022, had a nearly flawless card slightly more gettable — by Oakmont standards anyway — course thanks to overnight rain that softened things up a bit. Ortiz birdied both the par-5s and added birdies on the par-3 sixth and the par-4 14th. His bid for a bogey-free round ended when he failed to get up-and-down from a greenside bunker following an errant drive. He shrugged it off afterward, pointing to all the positives instead. He'll wake up Sunday in contention at the U.S. Open. During the tournament's last trip to Oakmont nine years ago, he shot back-to-back 76s to miss the weekend by six. Not this time. 'Different player, same course,' Ortiz said, then added for emphasis, 'same course.' Philip Barbaree Jr. had a sleepless night for all the right reasons. He had to return to Oakmont on Saturday morning to finish his second round, knowing he had to make a par to make the cut for the first time in the U.S. Open. His final hole was No. 9, the hardest one on perhaps golf's toughest course. 'Probably a lot of pent-up emotion and stress from sleeping last night — or not sleeping last night — just knowing that I pretty much had to come out and make par on one of the hardest holes on the course,' he said. He found the fairway. He hit his approach to 25 feet. He left the uphill putt 5 feet short. And he made it for a 71 to finish at 7-over 147. An hour later, he teed off in the third round with Oakmont's head pro, Devin Gee, as his non-scoring marker. Barbaree had a pair of double bogeys and an eagle in his round of 75. But that par is what mattered. The celebration looked like someone who won the tournament, especially the strong hug with his caddie — wife, Chloe. 'To be able to pull off a shot like that when it matters, and then with her on the bag, it's special,' Barbaree said. His wife knows next to nothing about golf, but Barbaree asked her to caddie for him last year. He immediately started playing better and asked her to stick around. He's on the PGA Tour Americas, a third-tier circuit that splits time between Latin America and Canada. The cut at least exempts Barbaree from having to go through the first stage of Q-school later this year. Barbaree also gets to skip the first stage of U.S. Open qualifying next spring. Big putt, indeed. Tyrrell Hatton is rarely one to keep his emotions in check . Yet the fiery Englishman managed to do just that during one particularly difficult moment to keep a round that became a 2-under 68 and thrust him into contention at 1-over on track. Hatton was at 3 under for the day and even for the tournament when his approach to the par-4 15th landed in the grass on a side slope abutting a greenside bunker. Standing awkwardly, he choked down on a lob wedge and was 'delighted' when the ball managed to stay on the putting surface, though that didn't stop him from gesturing angrily in the direction of the bunker after he three-putted for a double bogey. While Hatton would prefer not to have so much thick rough around the bunkers, he knows it's pointless to complain about the setup. 'It doesn't matter if I don't agree with it or every player in the field doesn't agree with it,' he said. 'Everyone has to deal with it. It's just how it is.' Hatton recovered by birdieing the par-4 17th and saving par on the 18th after his drive found a bunker to put him in the mix for his first major. ___ AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson contrubuted to this report. ___ AP golf:
Associated Press
15-06-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Scottie Scheffler is fighting his swing at the U.S. Open. He's hanging around anyway
OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) — Scottie Scheffler arrived at Oakmont with his swing in a good place. Wherever that place was, it's gone. Temporarily, at least. While world's top-ranked player put together his best round of the week at the U.S. Open on Saturday by firing an even-par 70 to remain at 4 over, he knows tracking down good friend and third-round leader Sam Burns eight shots ahead might require the kind of crisp, clean golf Scheffler has struggled to produce over 54 holes. 'Am I in the position I had hoped to be after three days? Obviously not,' Scheffler said. 'But for the way I've swung it and played the last few days, I feel like I could be a lot worse.' Such is the level that the 28-year-old star finds himself at that, during feels like an 'off week,' he will head to the course on Sunday on the front page of the leaderboard, albeit at the bottom. 'For me to be sitting where I am this week, not having really my best stuff, I think is pretty good,' Scheffler said. It's not like Scheffler hasn't been searching for it. He hit the practice range shortly after a 71 on Friday, then proceeded to have an animated session with longtime coach Randy Smith. Scheffler waved his arms at times, clearly frustrated by the results. Asked about it, Scheffler shrugged and called the whole thing 'pretty regular,' and it should be pointed out that the practice range at most tournaments doesn't sit next to the media center as it does at Oakmont. Scheffler admitted the session ended without much progress, though Smith shared some thoughts that 'definitely helped.' Still, the 'silly mistakes' that have dogged him this week prevented him from making a legitimate move. He missed a 2-footer for par on the par-3 eighth. He hit it into the native area along the left side of the ninth fairway, forcing him to take a drop. He bounced back on the back nine. Stuffing a wedge to 10 inches on the par-5 12th for birdie. A drive into the fairway bunker on the par-4 14th led to a bogey, but he responded by birdieing the short par-4 17th. When he tapped in for par on 18, he'd inched up the leaderboard on a day he knew he needed to leap up it. On Sunday, Scheffler might need to go full Johnny Miller in 1973 to track down Burns. Considering the way Scheffler has played this season, maybe there's reason for optimism, even when things aren't coming as easily as he's made it look. 'I've had three days where I haven't really had my swing, and I've been battling out there and still have a chance, albeit an outside chance,' he said. 'But still a chance.' Charging Carlos Carlos Ortiz was in danger of missing the cut when he began the second round by shooting a 5-over 40 on the front nine. Twenty-seven holes and 30-ish hours later, the 34-year-old from Guadalajara, Mexico, will go out in one of the final groups after firing a 3-under 67 in the third round. Heady territory for a player who came to Oakmont having made the cut just twice in nine major appearances. Ortiz, who won the Houston Open in 2020 before joining LIV Golf in 2022, had a nearly flawless card slightly more gettable — by Oakmont standards anyway — course thanks to overnight rain that softened things up a bit. Ortiz birdied both the par-5s and added birdies on the par-3 sixth and the par-4 14th. His bid for a bogey-free round ended when he failed to get up-and-down from a greenside bunker following an errant drive. He shrugged it off afterward, pointing to all the positives instead. He'll wake up Sunday in contention at the U.S. Open. During the tournament's last trip to Oakmont nine years ago, he shot back-to-back 76s to miss the weekend by six. Not this time. 'Different player, same course,' Ortiz said, then added for emphasis, 'same course.' A big putt Philip Barbaree Jr. had a sleepless night for all the right reasons. He had to return to Oakmont on Saturday morning to finish his second round, knowing he had to make a par to make the cut for the first time in the U.S. Open. His final hole was No. 9, the hardest one on perhaps golf's toughest course. 'Probably a lot of pent-up emotion and stress from sleeping last night — or not sleeping last night — just knowing that I pretty much had to come out and make par on one of the hardest holes on the course,' he said. He found the fairway. He hit his approach to 25 feet. He left the uphill putt 5 feet short. And he made it for a 71 to finish at 7-over 147. An hour later, he teed off in the third round with Oakmont's head pro, Devin Gee, as his non-scoring marker. Barbaree had a pair of double bogeys and an eagle in his round of 75. But that par is what mattered. The celebration looked like someone who won the tournament, especially the strong hug with his caddie — wife, Chloe. 'To be able to pull off a shot like that when it matters, and then with her on the bag, it's special,' Barbaree said. His wife knows next to nothing about golf, but Barbaree asked her to caddie for him last year. He immediately started playing better and asked her to stick around. He's on the PGA Tour Americas, a third-tier circuit that splits time between Latin America and Canada. The cut at least exempts Barbaree from having to go through the first stage of Q-school later this year. Barbaree also gets to skip the first stage of U.S. Open qualifying next spring. Big putt, indeed. Not a fan Tyrrell Hatton is rarely one to keep his emotions in check. Yet the fiery Englishman managed to do just that during one particularly difficult moment to keep a round that became a 2-under 68 and thrust him into contention at 1-over on track. Hatton was at 3 under for the day and even for the tournament when his approach to the par-4 15th landed in the grass on a side slope abutting a greenside bunker. Standing awkwardly, he choked down on a lob wedge and was 'delighted' when the ball managed to stay on the putting surface, though that didn't stop him from gesturing angrily in the direction of the bunker after he three-putted for a double bogey. While Hatton would prefer not to have so much thick rough around the bunkers, he knows it's pointless to complain about the setup. 'It doesn't matter if I don't agree with it or every player in the field doesn't agree with it,' he said. 'Everyone has to deal with it. It's just how it is.' Hatton recovered by birdieing the par-4 17th and saving par on the 18th after his drive found a bunker to put him in the mix for his first major. ___ AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson contrubuted to this report. ___ AP golf:
Daily Record
14-06-2025
- Sport
- Daily Record
Scottie Scheffler takes his anger out on coach in tasty US Open exchange after testing day two
The World No.1 is battling to stay afloat at Oakmont Exasperated Scottie Scheffler was involved in a feisty exchange with coach Randy Smith on the practice range as he battles to find a way back into the US Open. The World No.1 didn't hide his frustrations after struggling for a second-successive day at Oakmont. Scheffler headed straight from the course and his media duties to hit a load of balls and work on his game after the Friday irritation, a day where Rory McIlroy also lost his cool. The American Ryder Cup star looked to be having a tasty conversation with his coach Randy Smith as they sought solutions to the issues with caddie Teddy Scott in attendance. Scheffler, who had caught attention when smashing a club into the deck during the first round, didn't hide his disappointment again after round two as he said: 'I was not getting the ball in the correct spots and paying the price for it. 'I anticipated to hit it better. An time you're not hitting it the way or playing up to my expectations I think it's frustrating. Mentally this was as tough as I've battled for the whole day. 'There was a lot of stuff going on out there that was not going in my favour necessarily and I felt like Teddy and I did a great job of battling, especially coming down the stretch. 'You can get lucky sometimes and get a lie and maybe be able to get something to the green. But that wasn't really happening for me. I decided to just keep hitting it in the rough for some reason. 'I'm not in the position I'd want to be after two days, but by no means am I out of the tournament. 'I think forcing it around this place is probably not a good recipe to play too much good golf for me. You've got to be hitting fairways, you've got to be hitting greens, and hopefully I'll be able to do that on the weekend. 'There's a lot of places that ball could end up and it ends up in a place where I don't have a swing. So it's like, am I going mad about it, get frustrated, or am I just going to chip it out and see what I can do from there. 'I felt like that's what a lot of today was about, and hopefully be able to put together some good rounds over the weekend and see where I stand.' Scheffler's mood wasn't helped by the dreadfully-slow pace of play and he added: 'It felt long to me. Both the par-gives, we basically walked up on the group in front of us. 'You've got a drivable par-four on 17. Eight is basically a drivable par-four, too. You guys are the ones watching. I'm just trying to play. I've got too many concerns other than the pace it takes to get around this place. 'If we're playing threesomes at Travelers next week, the scores are obviously going to be a bit different. There's not nearly the distance in between holes. Look at the ground we've got to cover out there to walk 18 holes. 'That's a big piece of property. It just takes time. It just takes time to hit that many golf shots.'
