Don’t go after Scottie Scheffler if he doesn’t win at Oakmont Country Club this weekend.
He isn’t paying attention to that noise anymore.
After constant chirping from fans either one way or the other, the top-ranked golfer in the world — who is a massive favorite this week at the U.S. Open amid his wild tear through the sport — has taken some precautions. He doesn’t want to be on the hook for any bets.
“I think everybody hears from fans whether they have a financial benefit or anything in their outcome. That’s why I had to get rid of my Venmo because I was either getting paid by people or people requesting me a bunch of money when I didn’t win,” he said. “It wasn’t a good feeling.”
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Scheffler opened this week as a +275 favorite at BetMGM, which made him the overwhelming favorite to win the third major championship of the season. He has the shortest odds to win a U.S. Open since Tiger Woods was a +175 favorite in 2009. Woods ended up finishing four shots back from Lucas Glover, who claimed his first and only major win, that week.
Based on how Scheffler’s played lately, it’s easy to understand why he’s such a big favorite.
Scheffler has won three of his past four starts, including a five-shot win at the PGA Championship last month. He has not missed a cut in 12 starts, and he’s finished inside the top 10 nine times. He’s not finished worse than T8 in his past seven starts, which included a fourth-place finish at the Masters. Scheffler is coming off a win at the Memorial Tournament two weeks ago; he skipped the RBC Canadian Open last week.
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Last year, when Scheffler finished T41 at the U.S. Open, he came straight from the Memorial Tournament.
“Having the week off was really important for me to get home, get some rest, recover, and I showed up here on Sunday and was able to play maybe 11 holes and really get used to the conditions,” Scheffler said. “It feels much more like my normal major prep versus last year where you’re coming in from basically a major championship test, coming into another one is pretty challenging.”
A win this week for Scheffler would give him his fourth major championship of his career and put him just a British Open victory away from completing the career Grand Slam. It’d also mark his 17th career win, 12 of which will have come within the past 15 months.
He’s the easy pick to win this week outside of Pittsburgh, as made clear by his ridiculous odds. But, as many golfers in the field this week will tell you, winning at Oakmont with its brutal rough and seemingly endless bunkers is no easy task.
Scheffler, at least as best he can, is trying to tune it out before he tees off Thursday afternoon.
“I don’t pay attention to the favorite stuff or anything like that,” he said. “Starting Thursday morning we’re at even par and it’s up to me to go out there and play against the golf course and see what I can do.”
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