OAKMONT, Pa. – The ridiculously high standards that Scottie Scheffler has set the last 3 ½ years often lead to even higher expectations, which makes his start at the U.S. Open feel like such an anomaly.
The world No. 1’s rounds of 73-71 left him tied for 34th midway through Friday’s frame. It’s the first time he began a week with back-to-back over-par cards since last year’s U.S. Open and was eight shots off the lead when he completed his day.
For a player who holds himself to such high standards it would have been understandable if he spent his post-round media scrum lamenting his situation, but that wasn’t the case.
“I bounced back really well to a lot of the mistakes that I made,” he said. “I’m not in the position I’d want to be after two days, but by no means am I out of the tournament.”
Scheffler took a familiar approach to the 125th national championship at Oakmont, the toughest test in major golf, and embraced the long view following an eventful second round.
Following bogeys at Nos. 15 and 17 (he started his round on the 10th hole), he traded two bogeys at Nos. 1 and 3 with bounce-back birdies at Nos. 2 and 4. Even following another bogey at the closing hole after missing the fairway off the tee, Scheffler was optimistic he could play his way back into the championship.
“I felt like I got some momentum back with a birdie on 2, quickly lost it with a bogey on 3, but then bounced back, birdied 4, great up-and-down on 5, great up-and-down on 6, birdied 7, good par on 8. I made the mistake there on 9, but that’s just what happens when you don’t hit the fairway,” he said. “Overall, definitely not out of the tournament. Today was, I think with the way I was hitting it, was easily a day I could have been going home and battled pretty hard to stay in there.”
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