Taylor Moore (-6) is the provisional leader of the Texas Children’s Houston Open, once the morning round of the first day’s play has finished. Fantastic round from the Texan, who started with a bogey on hole 1 and ended up signing a 64 at the Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston…
The problem for Moore, and for the rest, is that another Texan, this one by adoption, Scottie Scheffler (-5), does not seem willing to take his foot off the accelerator. The world Number One, again, as if it were nothing, has signed another round under par, and that makes 28 in a row in 2024. That is, all the ones he has played this year.
Today’s is not just any under par round, but a solid scorecard of 65 strokes playing at times against style. Because Scheffler’s style usually involves being one of the best, if not the best, in the greens in regulation statistic and today, however, he has not been fine in this section. It doesn’t matter, who cares. If today it’s about being the best recovering around the green, then you get on with it and, voilà, you achieve it.
Not only does he achieve it, but he also does it without apparent suffering. He has missed up to seven greens today and seven times he has signed par without changing his expression, being the only player in the morning round who has handed in a bogey-free scorecard, along with the Korean K. H. Lee. Only in one of those seven recoveries, moreover, has he had to struggle to sink the par putt, one of two and a half meters on hole 10, the first of his round. The other six, as if sewing and singing. Little approach and ball to a palm, two at most, from the cup. How do you beat a guy who always has one or several aces up his sleeve?
There is a lot of tournament left, 54 holes, but right now it is hard to imagine that Scottie Scheffler will not be in the fight for victory on Sunday, in search of a formidable hat trick, after winning the Arnold Palmer and THE PLAYERS, no less. Today, moreover, the Texan has putted notably, sinking some medium and even long distance putts. And you know what usually happens when Scheffler is comfortable on the greens…
Tomorrow will be another day, but for now this is what it is, a Number One in all letters who enjoys exercising as such almost every day.
