Coming into the U.S. Open at Oakmont, Scottie Scheffler was the clear favorite to take home his fourth major and second of the year.
However, Oakmont has gotten the better of plenty of pros this week, and Scheffler is no different. The World No. 1 has battled his swing, the brutal rough and speedy greens and sits at 4-over par heading into the final round on Sunday.
Like Rory McIlroy did after winning The Masters in April, Scheffler has struggled to bring his best stuff to the next major after winning the PGA Championship.
After his round on Saturday, Scheffler talked about the difficulty of turning it around and staying at the top of the game after winning a major.
“It’s really hard to describe to somebody that hasn’t really lived through it just because of — I mean, when I woke up after the PGA Championship this year, I literally felt like I got hit by a bus,” Scheffler said. “Like I felt terrible. And it’s just part of the adrenaline, part of competing for four days on a really difficult golf course, keeping your head in it for 72 holes, which is a long time, and just mentally it’s exhausting. Physically it’s a grind too.
“So if that’s how I felt after the PGA, I can only imagine how Rory felt after winning the career Grand Slam, and it’s not easy to show up every week out here and play well. This is a very difficult sport. We play very difficult golf courses like this one.”
Of course, Scheffler has won three majors in his career, so he knows the feeling at this point. However, he has never won multiple in the same season and the wear and tear has been clear over the years.
Scheffler isn’t completely out of contention yet, but a comeback from eight shots off the lead would be unheard of on Sunday. He has been battling all aspects of his game at times during this tournament, and that has kept him off of the front page of the leaderboard.
On Saturday, it was the putter that let the best player in the world down. He had his best ball striking day of the week, but three fairly short misses hurt him in the end.
“I felt like I had a hard time getting momentum,” Scheffler said. “I made a few silly mistakes out there, a couple three-putts, which is just a killer.
“Overall I felt like I was battling hard. You’re going to make little mistakes out here. There’s so much pitch on the greens. It’s really challenging, and I did a pretty good job, I think, today of staying patient, still getting in and posting a score.”
Scheffler still signed for an even-par round of 70, but it could have been much better if he could have gotten more putts to drop.
Now, he will try to post a low score on Sunday and give the leaders something to think about.
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