PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Scottie Scheffler stood in the middle of the 18th fairway and glanced toward the green. As he waited for the group in front of him to finish, behind the grandstands a giant cloud sporting a frightening shade of gray loomed. A hole earlier, Scheffler had been washed by sunlight and framed by a rainbow. Now, the sun was gone and it looked like more rain could be coming.
It was that kind of day in Northern Ireland at the Open Championship.
“When we were teeing off, depending on what weather forecast you looked at, it was going to tell you something different,” Scheffler said. “It was super sunny when we were on the driving range, I’m out there in short sleeves, it’s warm out. Then we get to the first hole, it’s still sunny. Then all of a sudden, you look around and it’s super dark and it starts pouring rain. You’re like, boy, I wonder how long this is going to last.”
Through pouring rain, wind or sunshine, Scheffler was unfazed. He birdied the first hole under the conditions — a harbinger of what was to come.
Over the course of the afternoon, the best player in the world did what he has now done many times: made his victory feel inevitable. In his second spin around Portrush, Scheffler continued to lead the field in approach and went on to make over 132 feet of putts, tally eight birdies and shoot what felt like an easy 64 to take the 36-hole lead at 10-under.
“I felt like I hit a few more fairways than I did yesterday,” Scheffler said, stating the obvious. “Hit some really nice iron shots, and was able to hole some putts.”
This kind of understated, matter-of-fact nature to Scheffler’s demeanor has become common. It’s why the best and most honest assessment of Scheffler’s greatness can often be found not with him but with the very people who are trying to beat him.
On Friday, when one reporter prefaced a question to Shane Lowrywho played with Scheffler, about being on the fringes of contention, Lowry chuckled.
“Eight shots behind Scottie Scheffler isn’t in the fringes of contention the way he’s playing,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Rory McIlroy finished his second round at 3-under and made a point to say he was only five back of the leaders which, at the time, were Brian Harman and 大全 at 8-under.
Be it one shot like Matt Fitzpatrickseven shots like McIlroy or anything in between, any deficit against Scheffler has a different feel to it, especially when he’s not just excelling at his normal superpower (he’s No. 1 in strokes gained: approach), but has seemingly tapped into a new one with his putter (he’s No. 2 in strokes gained: putting).
“He’s an exceptional player. He’s World No. 1,” Fitzpatrick, who will be Scheffler’s playing partner in the last group Saturday, said. “We’re seeing Tiger-like stuff.”
When asked what it feels like to be in contention, Fitzpatrick raved about the feeling before realizing that the guy he’ll be contending with is likely now used to this sensation.
He laughed. “It must be fantastic for Scottie.”
Even though Scheffler may feel inevitable, this is still The Open, and there’s something different about holding on to leads on courses that require something beyond target practice.
Here, professional golf is at its most inclusive. Here, the ball rolls, the bunkers swallow, the crosswinds confuse and the potential lies terrorize. The formula to succeed can be simple in theory, but endlessly complex in execution. Distance is no longer the be-all and end-all; strategy is. How far a player may hit the ball is no longer an indication of how well a player may do at a given tournament, but merely a means to the most important end: Get the ball in the hole.
Just take a look at Harman. While a player like Fitzpatrick has made a name for speed training and gaining distance despite his slight frame, the Georgia native stands 5-foot-7, hits it about 275 yards off the tee and was able to win the 2023 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool by simply keeping the ball in front of him.
Harman is back, and this time he’s coming for another Open with the same recipe.
“I feel really comfortable over here,” Harman said. “I think that places like this force you to be a little bit more creative. It’s not so much of an aerial attack. There’s probably 10 different types of clubs, irons, drivers, woods that you can hit off the tee. There’s different ways to attack into the green, and there’s almost always a hill that will kind of kill a shot coming into the green. I just enjoy the creativity and trying to think your way around. You don’t necessarily — you’re not forced to hit certain shots. You can kind of do it your own way.”
Bingo.
Aside from Scheffler, who is becoming even more of a constant presence no matter the kind of course, there seems to be no one-size-fits-all approach to this tournament. Just look at the leaderboard: Both McIlroy and 52-year-old Lee Westwood are just outside the top 10, seven shots behind Scheffler. One has struggled to hit the fairway, the other has hit the most fairways in the field so far even if he can’t hit it nearly as far as his competitors.
There’s a journeyman of the DP World Tour in Li (8-under) and there are two DP World Tour graduates who share a last name and the potential to be stars in Nicolai Hojgaard (4-under) and his brother Rasmus (5-under). Both are inside the top 10, too.
There’s Tyrrell Hattonwho is coming off contending at the U.S Open, and Tony argumentswho hasn’t won a PGA Tour event in two years and has missed the cut at the past two Open Championships. And then, there’s Fitzpatrick, who, on paper, may be the biggest threat in keeping Scheffler away from the Claret Jug.
“I felt like every facet of my game was on today,” said Fitzpatrick, who won the 2023 U.S. Open at Brookline.
Of course, elite ballstriking is the bedrock on which any winning bid will be made at Portrush — just look at the fact that Robert MacIntyre and Harris English are also inside the top 10. But the reason why it can’t be a case closed for Scheffler 36 holes in isn’t so much about who surrounds him, but more about what this tournament can do to a player.
Trouble is just around every nook. A pot bunker here, out of bounds there, or the menacing gores that often look closer to the fairways and greens than they are. As Scheffler experienced Friday, the weather forecast is a guessing game, and stepping up to any tee, you never know what kind of wind or rain you’re going to get. You also never know what kind of winner the links will crown. No one expected Harman to win in 2023.
“I think the pressure is for him to win the golf tournament,” Fitzpatrick said. “I wouldn’t say I necessarily feel as much pressure. He’s going to have the expectation to go out and dominate.”
Fitzpatrick is right. But even though Scheffler will be chased by many starting Saturday, his biggest rival may be this tournament itself. It’s the one major he has performed the worst at in his career, relatively speaking, and because of its style, it’s also the one that will likely be the toughest to hold on to.
All eyes will be on Scheffler, who will further the Tiger comparisons once again if he does hang on for the win. The last player to win an Open with a 36-hole lead was Woods in 2006. At the time, Woods, like Scheffler, was the No. 1 player in the world; at the time, Woods also felt inevitable.
“We’ll see what the weekend brings,” Fitzpatrick said. “There’s still a hell of a long way to go,”
