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PINEHURST, N.C. — Scottie Scheffler enters U.S. Open as the most dominant golfer since Tiger Woods in his prime.
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Scheffler is coming to Pinehurst fresh off a win at Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament. It was his fifth win of the year with all of them coming at some of golf’s biggest events: The Masters, Players Championship, Arnold Palmer Invitational, RBC Heritage, and Memorial.
Rory McIlroy was asked what impresses him most about Scheffler?
“The fact that the only thing that took him from winning a golf tournament was going into a jail cell for an hour,” McIlroy said.
Even PGA Championship winner Xander Schauffele took time out of his winner’s press conference last month to heap praise on his competitor.
“All of us are climbing this massive mountain. At the top of the mountain is Scottie Scheffler. I won this today, but I’m still not that close to Scottie Scheffler,” Schauffele said.
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With the U.S. Open a day awa, the golf world can’t stop talking about the world No. 1. Here’s what some of his top competitor’s had to say about him at Pinehurst:
Rory McIlroy
“Undoubtedly the best player in the world at the minute by a long way. It’s up to us to try to get to his level.”
“Look, a lot of stuff went on in his life, as well. They’ve just had a new child. He’s been through some struggles in his game, particularly the putter that he’s been able to turn around, as well. It’s not as if he hasn’t had his challenges along the way, or circumstances have been a little bit different for him. But yeah, I mean, the word that I describe it as is relentless.”
“Every time he shows up, he is the guy to beat, and deservedly so.”
Xander Schauffele
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“I think I need some more work. I obviously believe I can, but Scottie is doing incredible things. Every week we play, he seems to build a bigger lead, and somehow make the mountain even taller for all of us to climb.”
“Hats off to him for being so consistent and playing at such a high level for such a long time. I believe I can do it, but it’s going to take some time.”
Jon Rahm
“I haven’t been following the stats, but it just doesn’t seem like anything is wrong. Let’s just say it that way. Based on what he’s been doing the last few years, if he could just stay around even on strokes gained putting, he could have a season like this. When you’ve top 5 in pretty much every category, tee to green, if you just putt average, you’re going to beat everybody.”
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“He’s doing everything well. But I think when somebody is that good, it gets to a point where what’s in between the ears is the biggest asset.”
Viktor Hovland
“Very impressive. Like, obviously we can play well and compete against him when we’re playing well, but he just seems to bring that game every single week, kind of is taking the level of consistency just to another level. Just super impressive.”
“Like, you can have a nice little run, but then most of the time you kind of fall back to whatever, a more average week. But his average week is just really, really good. Definitely makes me work harder and motivates me to get better and try to compete against him. But it’s super cool to watch.”
“You know the old saying: It’s not about how good your good shots are, it’s how good your bad shots are. He’s certainly playing a game where his bad shots are still good. Like they’re still in play. He doesn’t have to worry about, ‘Man, I hope this big miss doesn’t show up,’ because there is no big miss. When you couple that with a really, really high-level short game, it’s just easy to play the game of golf.
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Bryson DeChambeau
“I tried asking him that a couple days ago when we flew in here. I saw him, and I was like, ‘Dude, you’re playing unbelievable. What are you doing, man?’ He’s like, ‘I’m just playing good golf, I don’t know. It’s one of those things.’”
“From my perspective, he’s got full control of his golf swing. He’s figured out a lot of his putting. He plays some incredibly strategic golf from what I can tell. He doesn’t go too crazy. He just hits the right shots at the right time. He’s really in control of the environment, not only his environment but the conditions on the golf course. He knows what the golf ball is going to do. He knows how to react accordingly.”
“He’s been able to do it longer than anyone has for a long time. Again, he is the gold standard right now, and we’re all looking up to him going, All right, how do we get to that level?”
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On Tuesday afternoon at Pinehurst, Scheffler held the final press conference of the day. After all the compliments that were paid to him earlier, the Toronto Sun asked his what it means to him to have his peers singing his praises:
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Scottie Scheffler
“Well, yeah, I think it’s nice to hear a little bit of good things from my peers because I think we all try to bust each other up at times when we’re out there playing and competing. I think that’s part of the friendship bond, is you want to mess with your buddies, so to hear some compliments every now and then is definitely nice.”
“I always look back on being selected for my first Ryder Cup team, of kind of having the vote of some of the guys. I wasn’t really a proven player out here yet. I hadn’t won on tour. I got the vote of some of my peers to be on that team and was able to perform well. So that’s something that I always look back on and am very grateful for. I’m very grateful those guys wanted me on that team and I felt like it was a big moment in my career.”
“I’m very thankful to have a lot of the friendships that I have out here and it’s a joy to be out here playing with these guys and competing with them. It’s a lot of fun.”
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