TROON, Scotland – Ted Scott knelt beside his bag and put his hands to his head. And with the group still on the green, he trudged to the next tee and dropped to the grass.
No, it wasn’t the brutal conditions at Royal Troon that were making him sick.
Scott was dealing with a bout of food poisoning (or perhaps a stomach bug) that led to an eventful night and, at least for a moment on Friday, some doubt about whether he would be able to take home the prize in the second round of the Open.
Attended to by on-site medics, Scott seemed to improve as the round progressed and, coincidentally, so did his man.
Even with a soft bogey on the final hole, Scheffler sits tied for fourth, just five shots off the halfway lead at Troon.
“I feel like I’m in a decent position,” he said.
And Scheffler is starting to get used to it at the Open, just as he’s been a consistent force at every other major event. This is the third time in four career Open starts that he’s been inside the top 10 after 36 holes, and while he’s managed just one top 10 in those starts, that’s more an indication that it’s still too small a sample size rather than a reflection of his adjustment to the course.
For a player of his age and pedigree, Scheffler, 28, is surprisingly inexperienced at links golf. Because he has two older sisters, he never took a family trip as a child to explore some of the world’s most famous courses. As a standout player in college and as an amateur, he never represented the U.S. on a visiting team in international competition. And he didn’t make his Open debut until three years after turning pro.
It could be the perfect style for your skills.
Scheffler, a youngster who grew up in Texas, has always had a fascination with working the ball. He remembers moving around his family’s house, tossing ping-pong balls with super-fast spin from room to room and watching how they reacted. At Royal Oaks, under the tutelage of his longtime coach Randy Smith, Scheffler would hit shots back and forth around a pole driven into the grass of the driving range.
“I didn’t want to become a robot,” he said. “I wanted to do what I thought was fun, which was watch, create and try to hit shots. I get bored sitting on the driving range trying to hit all the straight shots. So sitting there and learning how to curve, learning how to hit shots, that’s more fun for me than just sitting there and practicing club position.”
Scheffler’s talent has been on full display at Troon over the first two days, with winds reaching 30mph and sending scores soaring. His back-to-back rounds of 70 have put him firmly in contention for his second major title of the year; Data Golf gave Scheffler the second-best chance of winning, at 17%, despite being five shots behind Shane Lowry.
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It’s not just Scheffler’s experience in the big matches, nor is it just the memorable season he’s enjoying. No, it’s also a byproduct of the obvious skills he’s shown here; along with former Open champion Jordan Spieth and Cameron Young, who last year played in the final group with Brian Harman, it was Scheffler who appeared to be the more experienced links player.
At his best, Spieth was a standout iron player with a short game that bailed him out whenever he flirted with disaster. But Spieth never hit the ball with Scheffler’s power and precision, and the big man also possesses the arsenal of deep shots that make him a threat to get up and down at any time and from any spot.
As for Young, there are few who can hit a driver or a long iron with his powerful whipping power, and yet he often lacks the necessary conviction on the greens. Tired of squandering a dozen good birdie opportunities a round, Scheffler hired putting coach Phil Kenyon to neutralize what had been his main weakness, while Young (here at Troon and elsewhere) remains confounded by the shortest club in his bag.
On Friday, Scheffler was clearly abysmal relative to the others, as he relied on his intelligence, shot-shaping ability and innate scoring ability. He hit fairway woods and mid-irons hard through strong crosswinds. He used deft touch from deep bunkers, splashing his ball softly over steep edges to maintain the momentum of his round. He expertly judged distance and rollout on long-pitch shots.
“For me, that’s the fun part of the game, and it can be a challenge here,” he said. “It can be a challenge sometimes to pick the right shot, just because the bounces can be unpredictable and things like that. But overall, it’s been a fun couple of days and I’m looking forward to the weekend.”
It can’t be good news even for a former Open champion like Lowry to see Scheffler’s name so high on the leaderboard. He admitted as much afterwards.
“Honestly, I’m not sure Scottie Scheffler is too worried about someone in the form he’s in,” Lowry said. “Obviously, he’s in the mix and he’s a guy that people are going to be talking about.”
That’s right.
Like everything else this season, links golf is starting to come easy to him, too.