Why Scottie Scheffler has been treated totally unfairly by golf fans during the PGA Championship

Rory McIlroy suggested that the setup at Aronimink ‘wasn’t great’ on day two.

However, Scheffler was the one who seemed to receive the most flack, unfairly so.

Scottie Scheffler criticized for ‘absurd’ comments at Aronimink

The Dallas native found the going tough at Aronimink on Friday.

He was three-over par after four holes of his second round and at one point, it seemed like he could shoot in the high-70s.

However, he turned things around almost immediately, and is well in contention heading into the weekend.

After his second round, Scheffler received strong criticism from golf fans after suggesting that some of the pins at Aronimink were ‘absurd’.

“Most of the pins today were, I mean, kind of absurd,“ the world number one said.

“They were just so far into the areas where we thought the pins were going to be, and then they just — like the one on 14 was probably the hardest pin that I’ve seen in a long time just because, I mean, there’s literally just like a spine and they’re like, oh, we’ll just put the pin right on top of it. And you’re like, all right, well, I’ll see what I can do. And just you know, just challenging.

“This is the hardest set of pin locations that I’ve seen since I’ve been on TOUR, and that includes U.S. Opens, that includes Oakmont. I did ask, I asked Fooch, who caddies for Justin Rose.

“He’s been around a long time — and I asked Teddy too — have you seen anything like this before? They said maybe Shinnecock is the only place they have seen that has pins that could compare to this.“

Many golf fans took his comments completely the wrong way.

In fact, they were taken in isolation, completely out of context.

Scottie Scheffler has been treated unfairly during the PGA Championship

Here’s the part of Scheffler’s post-round interview that golf fans completely missed.

The world number one responded when asked by reporters whether he thought the setup on day two at Aronimink was unfair.

“I mean, not unfair,“ Scheffler insisted.

“I mean, I think the only time in our game where it’s unfair is like if you get wind starting to blow the ball off of greens. I hadn’t seen that yet. It looks like the wind’s going to die down as the week goes on. I don’t think we’ll see that this week.

“It’s funny sometimes, I feel like the thing in our game right now, which I do enjoy, I love hard tests of golf, but it’s also the hardest game in the world and we’re trying to make it harder, and there’s different ways you can do that. You can do that on a golf course like this — I mean, I truly believe they could have the winning score be whatever they want it to be. It could be over par if they want it to be, just based purely upon pin locations.

“Is that the best test? Who knows. It’s a different test. I think that’s what’s great about our game is very rarely do we play the same golf course, and even when you do at a place like Augusta, it’s different each and every year. So conditions are always changing, the golf course is always changing. I think it’s the hardest game in the world and still just trying to solve a bit of the puzzle.“

How can any reasonable golf fan read those comments and criticize Scottie Scheffler for supposedly ‘complaining’ about the setup at the PGA Championship?

So many comments from the biggest stars are taken out of context these days because fans are desperate to rush onto social media and be the first person to share what they think is a ‘hot take’.

Scheffler simply didn’t deserve the criticism he received on Friday.