According to: Scottie Scheffler has not yet won on a links course, but it cannot be said that this type of course is a stumbling block for him. He is just waiting for his moment. Perhaps it will come this week at the Renaissance Golf Club in North Berwick, Scotland, where he is preparing to play the Scottish Open for the third time in his career, a tournament he values in its own right: “I’m not just here to prepare for next week, I want to do well, I want to play well and win,” he explains.
Let’s review. It is true that he missed the cut on this very course in his first appearance, but if we are talking about the type of game needed to be efficient on a links, we will agree that the World Number One has it: in his first Open, for example, in 2021, he finished in eighth position. And last year, he finished seventh, but with ten holes to go, he was one shot off the leader, deeply involved in the fight (a double bogey on the 9th hole and another on the 18th at Royal Troon ultimately relegated him). Not to mention his third place at the Renaissance in this Scottish Open in 2023. Or the fact that his worst position in an Open Championship has been 23rd… He has it. He knows how to do it and he enjoys it. He is just waiting for his moment.
Scottie also appears particularly fresh and motivated this week. He is a guy driven by challenges, and there is one he particularly likes. “Winning here or next week says a lot about a player, especially if they come from the United States. Because here you have to do things differently from what we usually do in the United States. You have to be more creative when the wind blows and around the greens, where normally, with a good ball position, you can design a shot in several ways,” he explains. “Normally here you have to play and practice more different types of shots and it’s fun,” he concludes.
A player raised and matured for golf in Texas is not afraid of the wind, a regular feature in these and those latitudes, but he also knows it’s not exactly the same. “I grew up in Texas playing in a lot of wind, but here it’s different, and I think it’s because of the type of ground, firmer, and the grass, rougher. The ball comes out with different effects, and you have to adapt,” he notes. This week, indeed, the wind will not be absent in North Berwick, especially on the first day tomorrow, Thursday. It will blow, and it will do so with a very Scottish peculiarity, according to the weather forecast: with a noticeably different direction each day.
Although one must obviously consider the new environment, the game on links, a final piece of data is never superfluous to gauge the possibilities of this extraordinary player: it has been almost four months since he finished a tournament outside the final top ten, since THE PLAYERS. Scottie is once again a good bet in this regard, and then we’ll see if he reaches the final holes on Sunday with a chance of victory. One of his playing partners on Thursday and Friday, Robert MacIntyre, might be even more of a favourite this week and at this event: he is defending his title, he recently finished second in the US Open, and he continues to grow.
