Scottie Scheffler hit an unpleasant shank. However the actual shock got here later
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Scottie Scheffler after making a double-bogey 6 on the third gap on the RBC Heritage on Thursday.
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In case you watched Scottie Scheffler on the Masters final week — or on the PGA Tour for the higher a part of the final two years, for that matter — you’d be forgiven for considering that his iron sport is infallible. In 2023, he led the Tour in SG: Strategy the Inexperienced, choosing up, on common, 1.194 strokes on the sphere. This 12 months, he’s main that class once more and by an much more dominant margin, gaining 1.347 strokes on his opponents. He has hit 75% of his greens in regulation in 2024 (additionally tops on Tour), which is sort of 10 proportion factors higher than the Tour common. “He simply looks as if he’s enjoying on the driving vary every single day,” Max Homa stated earlier this week of how straightforward Scheffler is making the sport look.
Fact is, in fact, Scheffler is just not good. He confirmed that on Thursday.
Scheffler is again at it this week, as are a lot of the Tour’s stars, on the RBC Heritage, the fifth of eight limited-field Signature Occasions on the calendar. After the thrill of successful his second inexperienced jacket on Sunday, Scheffler stated he got here into Harbour City feeling each mentally and emotionally fatigued. He additionally stated he was unable to carve out sufficient prep time, particularly on the greens, and thus didn’t really feel as dialed as he usually can be within the lead-up to an occasion.
Scheffler opened par-birdie then arrived on the 465-yard par-4 third, the place he dumped his method right into a bunker proper of the inexperienced. What got here subsequent from the world’s undisputed finest male golfer was jarring: a chilly shank. Scheffler’s ball shot off the hosel of his wedge at a 45-degree angle and practically flew the inexperienced completely earlier than rolling off the again.
“Did that go within the different bunker?” he requested his caddie, Ted Scott.
It had not. However it’s going to go down as one of many extra unbelievable pictures you’ll see in 2024 from the Tour’s most unflappable participant. The misplay led to a double-bogey 6 for Scheffler, however as Scheffler does so properly, he didn’t let the gaffe unravel him, enjoying the following 15 holes in three below to signal for a two-under 69 and prolong his consecutive rounds of par or higher streak to 37.
After his spherical, Scheffler wasn’t requested instantly in regards to the messiness on the third, however he elected to deal with it head-on, anyway. When requested an innocuous query about the way it felt to be enjoying once more within the wake of his Masters win, Scheffler admitted to feeling pissed off that he wasn’t his normal sharp self and to struggling to regulate to Harbour City’s greens. He additionally stated, “I shanked the bunker shot on 3. I shank it an honest quantity, however by no means in competitors.”
Scheffler didn’t expound, however the little that he did say on the subject nonetheless was a stunning admission, as a result of it’s not typically you hear Tour professionals, unsolicited, rehash train-wreck swings or use the s-word to explain them. Then once more, Scheffler isn’t most mavens. Past his otherworldly ball-striking expertise, he has realized to play the sport with an equanimity that a lot of his opponents lack. That wasn’t all the time the case — Scheffler ran sizzling as a junior and early in his skilled profession — however, as Homa says as we speak of Scheffler’s psychological fortitude, “He’s fairly wonderful at letting issues roll off his again.”
Take the third spherical of the Masters, when Scheffler performed 10 and 11 in three over. How did he reply? With an eagle on 13 and birdie on 15. Increase, errors erased.
Scheffler’s honesty about this propensity for shanking wasn’t simply stunning, although, it additionally was refreshing. The notion that Scheffler hits a “first rate quantity” of shanks in observe is unquestionably of some solace to weekend hackers who themselves are inclined to soul-crushing, confidence-shattering hosel rockets. (Scheffler is certainly one of us!) Extra emboldening nonetheless: Regardless of Scheffler’s assertion that he “by no means” hits shanks in competitors, the incident Thursday, in reality, wasn’t a one-off.
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On the JP McManus Professional-Am, in Eire, two years in the past, Scheffler practically decapitated a digital camera operator when he shanked a greenside lob shot. The next 12 months, within the second spherical of the 2023 Open Championship, Scheffler shanked his method into the par-4 twelfth. “How does this hold taking place?” he barked. And who can neglect Scheffler’s foursomes match with accomplice Sam Burns on the 2022 Presidents Cup, the place Scheffler unleashed a tee shot on the par-Tenth at Quail Hole that squirted to this point astray that his ball practically disappeared into timber 50 yards proper of the inexperienced. “That’s hosel rocket proper there,” a commentator stated on the printed. “You’ll be able to hear the group reacting since you don’t hear that hardly out right here on Tour.”
Burns later stated of the shot, “It was, like, a extremely, actually good shank.”
Levels of shanks? Is there such a factor? Most assuredly! Ask Scheffler, who at a Tour occasion on the Greenbrier in 2019 was visibly disgusted by his tee shot on a par-3.
“Oh gosh, I shanked it,” Scheffler cried after influence, solely to observe his ball land simply wanting the inexperienced and take a fortuitous bounce that left him roughly 40 toes for birdie. (Scheffler holed the putt.)
Level is, no, Scheffler isn’t good, however he has turn into seemingly all however good at shaking off poor swings, poor holes and even poor rounds. And when you are able to do that, you keep away from poor tournaments and perhaps sooner or later turn into an all-time nice. As Scheffler stated Sunday night at Augusta Nationwide, his second inexperienced jacket on his again: “I really feel like I’m in command of my feelings as I’ve ever been, which is an efficient place to be. I really feel like I’m maturing as an individual on the golf course, which is an efficient place to be.”
Good for Scheffler, positive, however dangerous for his competitors.
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