Scottie Scheffler is undoubtedly the name to follow this week at the Travelers Championship. His indigestible US Open, with only four birdies in 72 holes and a lacklustre performance by his standards, has left a bad taste in the mouth and the tournament in Connecticut, the last designated of the PGA Tour season, will be a good yardstick to conclude whether Pinehurst was a mere accident or a symptom.
A symptom of certain fatigue. Scheffler himself acknowledged it. It’s been a very good six months, with five victories, a Major, THE PLAYERS, three designated, great golf and a huge wear and tear. “It’s not so much about physical fatigue as mental fatigue,” he explains. It makes sense. Being always on top means subjecting yourself every day to the tension of fighting for the lead, dealing with the media, attending every interview… His rivals were changing week by week, but he was always on top. It goes with the salary of someone who wins tournaments and there are few who manage to naturalise it.
Specifically, regarding the US Open, the golfer who resides in Texas believes that the unique configuration of Pinehurst’s No.2 course may have taken its toll. “From the tee I found it hard to understand. Normally in tournaments I have a very clear and defined strategy, but here it didn’t matter so much. You could miss the fairway by half a metre and the ball becomes unplayable or do it by ten and it was perfect. There was no safety zone. It was very random and it’s possible that it distracted me a bit. From fairway to green it was a fabulous challenge, a great course, but from the tee I didn’t see it clearly,” he says.
Scheffler, in his meeting with journalists before the Travelers, took the opportunity to share a curious story about his shoes. As all our readers know, the hallmark of the Number One’s swing is his exaggerated foot movement. The dance he performs after hitting the ball on each shot, especially from the tee and with the long clubs, has a side effect: the shoes.
Footwear is a crucial part of Scheffler’s golf equipment, practically on par with his clubs. “My choice of shoes is based on performance. I think the shoe is very important in the swing, especially for me, who move my feet a lot. For me it’s very important to always wear the same shoe, because if I change the way the shoe sits at an angle or if I change the height, it can dramatically change the way the club passes through the ball. Therefore, for performance reasons, I always wear the same model of shoes, to have the same traction and the same weight. If I wore much heavier shoes, it would be much harder for me to get to the left side. So most of it is based on the performance of the shoe. I also like the way it looks, but it’s mostly based on performance,” he explains.
The choice of shoes is not casual and, in addition, he needs them to be always almost brand new. I usually put on a new pair every two weeks, to make sure everything stays very consistent with the shoe. As for adaptation, it’s not a big problem for me, they’re usually quite comfortable. And it’s nice to have a good pair of new shoes that look good, because when I was a kid I wore shoes for years and probably wouldn’t be the best product for Nike on television, because I play a lot of golf (laughs). I use a new pair every two weeks so that the performance remains exactly the same, something like what I do with the wedges. Most people don’t change golf clubs for years, but we change lob wedges probably once a month. So a lot of that is based on performance,” he confesses.
By the way, he admitted that he is very eager to compete in the Olympics and wants to share the Olympic village with other athletes to see their training. “I don’t know how much time we’ll have to see other disciplines, but what I like the most is basketball, which I’ve played a lot, and tennis. My wife also really likes gymnastics,” he points out.
