Cuando Sccotie Scheffler was a child and played at the Royal Oaks Country Club (Dallas, Texas), he would occasionally lose his patience. “I used to get really angry when I missed a shot and, how shall I put it, maybe there were some people who didn’t want to play with me,” he recently admitted with a bit of humour, recalling his childhood during the press conference before the Pebble Beach tournament, when someone asked him how he had worked on his attitude on the course over time.
He elaborated on the matter: “It has been a conscious effort since I was a child. I used to get very angry when I missed a shot, I didn’t understand it, I expected perfection from myself. You have to understand that mistakes will be made, and it’s more about how you respond to those mistakes. I think I’ve had to make a conscious effort over the last twenty years to get to where I am now,” he noted.
This week, at the Genesis Invitational, the first challenge for the World Number One is precisely to regain the zen state he momentarily lost in Phoenix, especially on Sunday. He knows that if he doesn’t achieve it, not even he, a prodigy of resources on the golf course, can truly aspire to victory.
The second major challenge Scheffler faces this week is the course. As is well known, this edition of the Genesis is being held at the South course of Torrey Pines (San Diego, California), and not at Riviera, as was usual, due to the devastating fires that ravaged Los Angeles. Scottie hasn’t fared particularly well on this course, especially considering his marvellous standards: he has played nine competition rounds on the South course, averaging a modest 72 strokes. He has played the Farmers three times and missed the cut twice. In 2020, he played the South course on the first day (the Farmers also play the North course in the first two rounds) and scored a 75. In 2021, he played it on the second day and delivered a dismal 79. In 2022, he finally made the cut at the Farmers and scored rounds of 70, 70, and 71 on this course.
However, in the 2021 US Open, which Rahm won and was held on the South course, he finished in seventh position with a total of -1 and rounds of 72, 69, 70, and 72, which are somewhat better records than they seem under US Open conditions. But it’s clear that it’s not a course he has managed to conquer so far. Not by any means. It doesn’t seem, therefore, the best setting to regain the winning path, which is certainly the third major challenge for Scheffler this week.
And if it’s not about winning, at least that third challenge will have to do with being back in contention for victory in the last nine holes on Sunday, which didn’t happen at Pebble Beach or Phoenix. Scottie isn’t content with being the World Number One: besides being it, he wants to look like it.
