LEAVING Portrush on the Monday after the Open, a church in the town centre had a poster on its lawn that showed an aerial photograph of Royal Portrush beneath a caption reading, “Every life should seek the one true course. Have you found yours yet?”
It felt a little like Open Week was ending as it had begun, given that the days before the first round had revolved around the existential chatter of the World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. Not that the eventual Champion Golfer of the Year was actually on the brink of a crisis, as many chose to believe. Rather, he was letting us know that, unlike David Duval after his 2001 Open triumph or the many Olympians who feel underwhelmed by post-medal success, he was attuned to the peculiar business of chasing sporting baubles and trinkets. Where they had been baffled that the completion of a lifelong quest provided less fulfilment than they expected, he was telling us that he never anticipates it in the first place.
It’s possible that Scheffler is the career equivalent of the golfer who doesn’t watch the leaderboard. Television commentators, of course, cannot fathom such a method, and they’re well within their rights. What they never do when assessing it as a strategy, however, is to consider all the errors committed by the golfers who do watch leaderboards. Because, of course, leaderboard watching has significant in-built threats as well as benefits – and so does chasing wins.
So while a leaderboard watcher might tense up, or push too hard for a birdie, the normal golfer treats victories in a similar way, while Scheffler believes that winning “isn’t the be all and end all” and therefore carries a lighter burden when contending.
It ought to be added that this state of affairs is Scottie Scheffler 2.0 because for the first period of his PGA Tour career he had significant difficulty converting winning opportunities.
In fact, through his first 61 starts after graduating from the Korn Ferry Tour in late 2019, Scheffler headed into the final round of a tournament tied sixth or better 15 times without winning.
It all changed with victory in the 2022 Phoenix Open – the start of a magical period when he won four times in just six starts, the last of them his first major championship (the Masters). Since, and including, that win in Arizona, Scheffler has been tied sixth or better pre-final round 42 times in 80 starts, winning 19 of them.
It’s a remarkable transformation, and a key factor is that he started working with caddie Ted Scott in late 2021, just before he hit that first, and life-changing, sweet spot. Scott talked to the Netflix series ‘Full Swing’ about the beginning of their partnership and it makes for intriguing reading given those contrasting sets of results.
Scott told Scheffler: “I don’t know if I want to work for you because of your attitude.” He then added: “When I posed that question to him, he said, ‘That’s a fair question and I’m willing to work on it.’ All I need is a little bit of hope, and I’m willing to get behind anybody. So I decided to take the job and here we are.”
Now, let’s recall the thoughts Scheffler expressed ahead of the Open win last month and consider what he said in response to Scott’s words on the same show.
“I used to fight anger issues,” he admitted. “I used to get too frustrated. Golf was too important to me. That’s kind of where I placed my identity for a long time. I try not to change too much, but I needed to change something.” He made that change, of course, and boy has it worked.
On, then, to this week’s St Jude Championship, the first of three FedEx Cup Playoff events. It takes place at TPC Southwind and is notable because, in terms of results at least, it is probably Scheffler’s least favourite PGA Tour stop (he failed to record one top 10 in his first six visits). If that’s the field’s good news, the bad news is that last year he broke that run with fourth place. Here are three ways to take him on.
Harris English Outright
The Georgian claimed his fifth PGA Tour victory in January, and there’s been plenty of excellent golf since then, particularly in elite company. He was T12th in the Masters and then second in both the PGA Championship and the Open. His last 11 starts have featured seven top 20 finishes, and he has good memories of the course, too. In fact, the first of those five PGA Tour wins came at TPC Southwind in 2013, and he was also the leader through 18, 36, and 54 holes when fourth in 2021.
Harris English First Round Leader
Stick with the in-form 36-year-old in the first-round market because in his nine starts on the course, he was the co-leader after 18 holes in 2013 and solo pacesetter in 2021. He’s also been going low in recent weeks. He thrashed a final round 65 when fourth at TPC River Highlands three starts ago, another 65 helped him make the cut in the Scottish Open after a very slow start, and he shared the first round lead at Royal Portrush last time out.
Justin Thomas
The Kentucky man was a winner at TPC Southwind in 2020, and he was also T12th on debut in 2019 and T13th in 2022. He played well earlier this season, finishing second at Innisbrook and the Philadelphia Cricket Club and winning at Harbour Town. Since then the form book looks less impressive, but he was the halfway leader when ninth at TPC River Highlands in late June, and his T22nd in the Scottish Open and T34th in the Open since then were above-average returns for him on the linksland.
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