Scottie Scheffler: I'm not out of it, and slow play is OK at U.S. Open
Scottie Scheffler hadn't shot an over-par round since last year's U.S. Open, he has two of them here but says he is far from out of it.
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OAKMONT, Pa. — Scottie Scheffler hadn’t shot an over-par round since last year’s U.S. Open, he has two of them so far this week at Oakmont but says he is far from out of the season’s third major championship.
Despite heading to the weekend at four-over par, the world No. 1 had a consistent message after shooting a second round 71: he’s still in it.
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Scottie Scheffler: I'm not out of it, and slow play is OK at U.S. Open Back to video
“Definitely not out of the tournament,” he said. “With the way I was hitting it was easily a day I could have been going home and battled pretty hard to stay in there. I’m 4-over. We’ll see what the lead is after today, but around this golf course I don’t think by any means I’m out of the tournament.”
Through two rounds, Scheffler has hit 13 of 28 fairways and the world’s best ball-striker was ranked just 68th in the field with his approach shots when he walked off the course.
“I feel like I battled really hard. It’s challenging out there,” he siad. “I was not getting the ball in the correct spots and paying the price for it. Felt like me getting away with 1-over today wasn’t all that bad. It could have been a lot worse.”
With average rounds times in the five-and-a-half hour range on the extremely difficult course, Scheffler initally bristled when asked why rounds were taking so long.
“Why do you think?” he asked back.
When asked if the rounds have felt long to him, Scheffler relented and weighed in.
“It felt long to me. Both the par-5s we basically walked up on the group in front of us. When it’s up on No. 8 — you’ve got a drivable par-4 on 17. (The long par-3 eighth hole) is basically a drivable par-4, too. You guys are the ones watching. I’m just trying to play. I’ve got too many concerns other than the pace it takes to get around this place.”
Scheffler said the pace of play doesn’t get under his skin.
“No. Going into a golf course like this with this many players and this tough of a golf course, you know it’s going to take a while,” he said. “Look at the ground we’ve got to cover out there to walk 18 holes. That’s a big piece of property. It just takes time.”
“It just takes time to hit that many golf shots,” he then joked.
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