Scottie Scheffler says his swing was good.
But ensuing drop-zone shots aren’t, which led the world No. 1 to vent during Thursday’s first round of the Memorial Tournament — and many of his thoughts were picked up by Golf Channel and PGA Tour Live mics. The comments came on Muirfield Village Golf Club’s par-3 16th hole, where Scheffler’s tee shot found the water to the left of the green, despite him believing he had made clean contact.
Words then followed. Most were voiced toward caddie Ted Scott, and the conversation centered around misjudging the wind.
“I never thought that I was in the water,” Scheffler said from the tee box as Scott started to walk ahead. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t hear a word you’re saying.”
“I feel like that was a good shot,” Scheffler said as he started to walk toward the drop zone. “Now I’m in the water. Because it came in out of the right. Absolutely flushed a 7-iron and we get the wind wrong, and I end up in the water. I don’t think you understand how frustrating that is. I thought it was a good shot. It really was. … Golly.”
“I liked that shot,” Scheffler said at the drop zone. “I don’t understand what I’m meant to do. I don’t understand. I really don’t. I mean, it was five yards short of the green, flushed 7-iron, because it’s into off the right. Like there’s no way it could curve that much. … It’s so frustrating. … I’m hitting good shots and dropping. We cannot get the wind wrong.”
From the drop zone, Scheffler then hit to 10 feet, and he two-putted from there for a double bogey. The conversation between Scheffler and Scott continued on the walk to the green, and briefly on the walk off of it. On the Golf Channel broadcast, analyst Curt Byrum said that “sometimes being a good Tour caddie is being able to just take the abuse the player is going to give you, take the shrapnel that’s coming your way. … And Teddy Scott has been there a million times.”
As for whom to blame, a caddie can advise, but the player, of course, hits the shot. Afterward, a reporter asked Scheffler for his thoughts on the 16th.
“That’s just another really good iron shot, and the wind switched from down off the right to pretty significantly in off the right,” he said. “If it’s down off the right, that ball’s probably where I hit my wedge shot to. So just don’t really know what I’m supposed to do there outside of trying to hit a good shot, and then it’s frustrating when it doesn’t work out, especially when it doesn’t work out in that direction.
“I would rather get gusted in off the left, not in off the right there. All you can do is just try to hit good shots. It can be very frustrating sometimes when you feel like you’re hitting good shots and then you’re going to the drop zone.”
Was Scheffler hitting good shots on Thursday and not getting the results he was expecting?
“Yeah, that’s how it felt,” he said. “Yeah, the wind is just hard to predict. It’s just hard to predict. When it gets gusty and then greens are this firm — I mean, 12’s a good example, too, where you can’t — like, you have two or three yards where you can actually hold that green, especially with how firm they were getting.
“Eleven’s a good example too because if I hit 4-iron and it’s straight across, if I land pin high, I’m going to go over the green in the rough. Five-iron’s tough because when the wind’s going like this and this, I could end up 15, 20 yards short of the green in the rough, and then you bring water into play.
“So there’s a lot you got to think about, and I think it gets even more challenging when the greens are this firm and the wind is unpredictable, especially on a day where the wind felt like it was going to be lighter and it was for most of the day, which is — I think it just shows kind of how tough the golf course is.”
After 16, Scheffler birdied 17 and parred 18, and he finished with a one-over 73, which was six back of the lead. On the birdie, Scheffler caught a break when his second shot, from the right fairway bunker, kicked to a favorable position just off the right side of the green — and from there, Scheffler chipped in.
“Got a good break there,” Scheffler said. “That was fun. That was good. Good breaks are more fun than — that one — see, that’s the thing that can be so frustrating about golf is I striped one on the hole before that and I end up in the water. That one I kind of hit thin, and you get a good bounce and I end up on the fringe and I chip in. Look, it’s always a touch thin out of the bunker, but I was trying to hit it a little higher so I could hold the green. And then that one lands in the rough just over the bunker, which is also dead, that bunker, and ended up chipping one in. So you’re just like, all right.
“Yeah, what a game. I felt like I didn’t get anything out of the round, all of a sudden you just get a lucky bounce and you’re like, OK, well, I’m going to try to smile, it’s still hard.”
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