Given how curious last week was for Scottie Scheffler, the reigning Open Championship winner is deservedly happy with his position after the opening round at a baked out Royal Birkdale.
The world No. 1, who is looking to become the first golfer in almost 20 years to go back-to-back at the Open, shot a 2-under 68 on Thursday and is just three shots back of first-round leader Jackson Suber, who is making his debut at this major.
Scheffler had an incredible start, going 4 under for his first six holes before making bogey on No. 7 after failing to get up-and-down. Scheffler stalled the rest of the way before hitting his approach on the penultimate hole off line and, he believed, becoming the victim of someone stepping on his ball.
“I’m hoping somebody stepped on it, but nobody would fess up,” Scheffler said. “It was just one of those things. I was just shocked at how deep the ball was in that grass. It looked like a lot of good spots around there, and then all of a sudden, you get to one area where my ball is — I considered actually taking an unplayable.
“Just one of those deals; sometimes you hit it over there and you get a clean lie and you’re able to give yourself a look, and then other times like today, you pay a pretty severe price.”
Scheffler came into the week having missed his first cut in four years at the Genesis Scottish Open. He’s had a tidy campaign on the PGA Tour so far, but has just one win. Two of his four runner-up results so far this year have come as he’s fallen short in playoffs. But Scheffler was up to his old tricks — early, at least — at Royal Birkdale.
He was second in strokes gained: off the tee for the day but was pedestrian otherwise, struggling with the putter overall. Still, Scheffler said he feels confident with how his game is tightening up at the final major of the year.
“I felt like I could have gotten a little bit more out of (my round), but yeah, if I continue to do what I did today with the ball-striking, I’ll be in a good spot as the week goes on,” Scheffler said.
You certainly cannot count Scheffler out as he is one of only four golfers inside the top 25 on the leaderboard who has won a major. Two of them — Francesco Molinari and Henrik Stenson — are not even playing full schedules anymore.
And, as Scheffler sits just three shots back, he is looking to continue a trend that is set to work in his favour — all of the last 26 Open Championship winners have been within five shots of the lead after the opening round.
“Any time you can shoot under par to start a major championship, it’s a good spot to be in,” Scheffler said. “I got off to a hot start in the round today and wasn’t able to make as many birdies as I would have hoped to down the stretch. I played the par-5s in over par. My only other bogey today was a wedge on 7, so those are a little disappointing.
“If I continue to strike the ball the way I did today and just keep giving myself looks, that’s part of it. Golf is played over 72 holes, and I definitely liked what I saw today.”
Amongst those that are tied with Scheffler, and firmly in the mix after 18 holes, is Canadian Nick Taylor.
Taylor had the best start of anyone Thursday, making birdie on his first three holes of the day. Taylor stumbled a little bit coming home — making bogeys on Nos. 15 and 16 — but made a rare birdie on his closing hole. The par-4 18th was playing as the second toughest on the day.
Taylor sits tied for 13th heading into Friday’s second round.
Fellow Canadian Corey Conners had a straightforward enough day, on the scorecard at least, making 17 pars and one bogey. He sits tied for 60th.
“I didn’t give myself too many great birdie chances, which I’m not thrilled about. However, I did a good job of keeping things pretty simple,” Conners told Postmedia in England. “As stressful and difficult or tricky as the course is playing, it felt fairly stress-free in a way.”
One golfer who did have a fairly stressful opener was Rory McIlroy. The grand-slam winner shot a 2-over 72 and was 148th out of 156 golfers in strokes gained: putting on Thursday, admitting he had a hard time judging the speed of the greens — some of which, McIlroy said, are “still alive and growing” while other parts have “went really dead.”
“Felt like I got it going a little bit, but yeah, just too many stupid mistakes,” McIlroy said. “Hopefully we’ll get the better conditions tomorrow and maybe the greens are a little bit smoother in the morning.
“If you look at the discrepancy between the scoring this morning and the scoring this afternoon, it looks like that’s going to be flipped tomorrow with the conditions again. Hopefully I can take advantage of the more benign conditions in the morning and shoot one under par and get back in it.”
Scheffler is very much in it. Ditto Taylor. Bryson DeChambeau (3 under) has found a little something. And McIlroy is looking for a charge before the weekend while plenty of names are feeling the top-of-a-major-leaderboard pressure for the first time.
Buckle up. The Open is on.