The sounds came first. Of young fans who’d spotted their man on the walkway and before a downward step could be taken. “Scottie.” Then, louder. “Scottie!” And, then, the world number one came into view and headed down the stairwell to the putting green where his waiting caddie Ted Scott handed over two Titleist ProV1s to Scheffler.
Scottie Scheffler’s next move was to head to his golf bag and retrieve his TaylorMade Spider Tour X putter, adroitly removing the head cover.
The pre-practice round routine – which had started on the range here at Bethpage Black – finished with a number of putts. The first four, from four feet, rolled into the tin cup before Scheffler moved to a different angle. Mr Perfect showed imperfection. The next putt missed on the right. The next hit the left side and spun out.
The seventh putt found the bottom of the cup and Scheffler moved on, briefly stopping to sign some flags for a couple of children who’d found the right waiting spot, and then on to the waiting buggy for a lift to the 10th tee, where he joined Harris English, Russell Henley and Collin Morikawa.
RM Block
This is Scheffler’s third Ryder Cup appearance – winning at Whistling Straits, losing in Rome – and, for a player who has topped the world rankings for the past 123 weeks straight, there is the expectation that his individual dominance which has seen him win six times this year will transfer to the team environment.
Asked if there were added expectations of his role this week, in front of what will be hugely partisan galleries, Scheffler didn’t take the bait:
“I don’t think about expectations. I don’t bother with that kind of stuff because it’s unimportant to me.
“What I focus on when I show up to tournaments is my preparation, and I have prepared for this tournament, I’m ready to go out and compete, and when I step up there on Friday I can tell myself on the tee on that I did ever last little thing that I could in order to play well when it’s time to go do what I love to do, and that’s compete and have fun. I’m excited to be able to play in front of a home crowd.
“I truly don’t think about expectations or anything like that. That’s wasted space in my brain!”
Scheffler continued his own theme, of sounding like he was just one of the lads. Not out on his own at all. Not like Tiger Woods at all, with his aura. “On our team, I think we have 12 guys that are all equal. I don’t think one player is more important than another. I think that is something that is through our team room.
“I’d like to think that I’m not difficult to pair with people. I’d like to think of myself as someone that’s a nice guy and easy to get along with. I’ve had different partners over the years and have had some success. I would definitely not put myself in that category [as Tiger]. I think some of the difficulty you had with playing with Tiger, I mean, I don’t even know what it could be. It could just be the aura that was Tiger Woods. There was some times there when he was doing nothing but winning golf tournaments and just beating the absolute crap out of people time and time again.”
Ironically, these days, that is what Scheffler has been doing time and time again in rising to the world number one position and with over $95 million in career winnings on the PGA Tour – at just 29 years of age – and with a focus, his own mindset, that has created its own aura.
