Between Scottie Scheffler and a Grand Slam career: the reinvented US Open

SOUTHAMPTON, NY – When Scottie Scheffler arrived at Shinnecock Hills for his first round nine at the US Open on Thursday morning, he must have thought, somewhere in his big, impressive head, that he might be four days away from becoming the seventh player to win a career Grand Slam. That hope is there, everywhere. Even Scottie Scheffler can't stop it everything the sound of the world.

But at noon Friday, with his second-round tee time more than two hours away, Scheffler was closer to the cut than the lead at the 126th US Open.

The issue was his first round score of 72, which put him six shots behind the first round leader, Wyndham Clark. The issue was a surprisingly good score for the first day, despite the windy conditions. The story was the weight of golf history. (See: McIlroy, Rory.) The problem was the nature of this US Open at Shinnecock and, most likely, the majority of US Opens Scheffler will play his entire career.

“Would it be a dream to win the US Open? Yes,” Scheffler said at a pre-tournament press conference. “But in the end, the Grand Slam was never something that motivated me. I always wanted to be the best version of myself, and that has brought me this far.”

“When it comes to this golf tournament, I will go into the first tournament reminding myself that I did everything I could to play well and now it's just a matter of going out there and trying to do and enjoy the tournament, versus feeling that you have to win for a reason.”

Scheffler is very insightful, in his self-effacing way. When he's in the mood to talk, he's one of the most interesting people in golf. His way of life is there for all of us to see.

Then came Thursday 72. Not a disaster. Not what he wanted.

“Today felt like a day where a lot of good guns were going to be punished,” Scheffler said. “You should have hit a good shot if you wanted to avoid the penalty.”

Scheffler is a professional golfer, so his opinion should certainly carry more weight than the opinion of any casual observer. But you could make the case that the opposite was true. With fairways here that are usually 40 to 50 yards wide, with easy (relatively speaking) pinning locations, and soft or slow greens, the world's best golfers didn't really need to play a long series of good shots to shoot for par or better.

All they had to do was avoid the big problems off the tee and green, followed by the attitude of holding time whenever a slow birdie putt from 20 meters presented itself. This course is unstoppable, as Augusta National is every year, to produce golf magic. Scheffler knows all about what Augusta National needs. He won two blue jackets. This is a different test.

This discussion of the USGA's USGA setup is not a criticism. But it's a necessary start when you bring a national championship to this magnificent course and this magnificent place, and the forecast calls for more wind and wind.

The R&A faces the same thing every year, whether the Open is at Royal St. George's in southern England or Carnoustie in northern Scotland. Scheffler, like Phil Mickelson before him, never thought British Open golf would be his thing. But when he won last year at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, he actually made it look easy, winning by four. It was nothing like the high wire action, with all the thrills of golf. What he did was to produce an endless series of beautiful pictures. His winning score was 17 under the division. Seventeen less!

What golfers say about the people behind the R&A is absolutely true: They don't care about the total scoreboard. The Open goes to old-line, tried-and-true golf courses again and again. The R&A attitude is, whatever happens, happens. It speaks volumes about their golf IQ set, and their confidence as golfers.

Scheffler turns 30 on Sunday. He has been closely involved with golf at the highest level for more than half of his young life. During those years, the USGA reinvented itself. Its day as the overlord over everything you do in golf is over. The modern USGA is now ready to play golf, and it doesn't serve 280 as a Sunday night score at the rate it did for decades.

Along those same lines, and at its most extreme, the USGA doesn't award golf as point-to-point as it does. Trees are no longer a thing at US Opens. The US Opens and British Opens are more similar than they used to be. Not just here at Shinnecock Hills, where the course looks like a Scottish immigrant. At most US Open sites. Pinehurst No. 2 (talk about firm terra firma) and Oakmont (as it is now treeless) and Pebble Beach (full name Pebble Beach Golf Links), to name three basic sites.

“I always felt that The Open would be one of the hardest for me to win because I didn't have much experience playing in the UK,” Scheffler said one day. “I haven't played much overseas. Having no experience in links golf, I could tell that would be very difficult for me to win.”

Then he won in Portrush last year. By hand.

Will Scheffler win the US Open between now and when he calls it a day? You would have to think yes. But to do it, he'll have to connect not with old-school US Open values. The Opens meet. He won one. That means he can win another one.