Scottie Scheffler fires back at media after The Open’s first round: ‘You’re the second…’

Scheffler pushed back on suggestions he struggled off the tee. The 29-year-old golfer appeared satisfied with his game, even though the stats suggested it could have been better.

When asked if he missed more fairways than usual, the PGA champion stood by his performance, citing the tough conditions.

“Yeah, you’re the second guy that’s mentioned that to me. I actually thought I drove it pretty good. I don’t know what you guys are seeing. When it’s raining sideways, it’s actually, believe it or not, not that easy to get the ball in the fairway. Thank you guys all for pointing that out,” Scheffler said.

“But yeah, three under par. Felt like I hit the ball nice off the tee, and really only had one swing I wasn’t too happy with on maybe the second hole, but outside of that, I felt like I hit a lot of good tee shots, hit the ball really solid.”

Scheffler draws distinction between Royal Portrush and Scottish Open greens

Scheffler’s putting was a concern at The Renaissance Club, which raised questions about whether the same problems would follow him to Royal Portrush.

But he made it clear that comparing the two sets of greens isn’t all that useful.

“Different greens, different surface. These greens, it’s just different. I don’t know how you want me to elaborate on that,” he said.

“Definitely a bit smoother, but putting is one of those deals where, especially when there’s a little bit of activity on the greens, you can hit a lot of good putts that don’t go in. I’m trying to do my best to be perfect every week, but some weeks the putts just aren’t going in and did a good job battling last week to finish top 10. So yeah, all good.”

If everything does start falling into place for him soon, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him lift the Claret Jug by Sunday evening.