PINEHURST, N.C. – Studying Scottie Scheffler has finally started to pay off for Rory McIlroy.
Back in April, when the draw came out for the first two rounds of the Masters, McIlroy was excited to see his name alongside Scheffler and Xander Schauffele on the tee sheet. He wanted to see, up-close, how Scheffler managed both his emotions and his way around the course. And over those 36 holes, the world No. 1 put on a clinic, leaving little doubt, dusting McIlroy by 10 shots and going on to win his second green jacket.
“He’s just so efficient with everything,” McIlroy said that day. “The amount of bogey-free rounds he plays and he shoots is phenomenal, and that’s the secret to winning major championships and winning big-time golf tournaments is more limiting the mistakes rather than making a ton of birdies.”
They were grouped again Thursday for the opening round of the 124th U.S. Open, and this time it was McIlroy who was in total control.
He didn’t just play like Scheffler.
He sounded like him, too.
Preaching patience and discipline.
A conservative approach.
Stoicism.
“Just trying to hit it into the middles of greens and giving yourself chances every single time, taking your medicine if you do hit it into trouble,” McIlroy said. “It was a really controlled round of golf.”
McIlroy went without a bogey during his round of 5-under 65, putting him in a share of the early lead with Patrick Cantlay. It wasn’t just Scheffler’s secret to success; over the years it has been McIlroy’s too: The previous three times that he opened a major with a bogey-free round, he went on to win.
This clean card at Pinehurst No. 2 was particularly sweet, while grouped with the winners of the previous two major championships.
No one in the sport is hotter than Scheffler, who has won five of his previous eight starts and nearly doubled up the next-closest player in the world rankings. But Scheffler was uncharacteristically wild off the tee, losing strokes to the field for just the sixth time in a round this season. His six fairways hit left him scrambling during a stressful round of 71.
Scheffler took a few mini-swings with a club as he answered questions during a radio interview, then bolted for the range to get his swing straightened out with coach Randy Smith.
“I didn’t hit it, chip it or putt it very well,” said Scheffler, now six shots behind. “But other than that, I played well.”
With the sun starting to set, Scheffler was joined in the practice area by Schauffele, who battled back for a 70 but was even more wild off the tee, ranking 146th out of 156 players in the field in driving.
McIlroy had no such troubles, as he exhibited precise control with every club in his bag. Deciding to play more conservatively off the tee with his club choices, he ranked just 28th in total driving distance, averaging only 301.1 yards. His strategy paid off with plenty of clean looks into the greens, as he hit 15 greens in regulation. And none of those that he missed proved problematic – he chipped in for birdie from short of the par-5 fifth, flew his tee shot just onto the back fringe on No. 6 and bailed out on the smart side on No. 8, leading to a straightforward up-and-down to save par.
“Just super conservative with my strategy and my game,” he said.
Sound familiar?
Thursday’s round marked the continuation of McIlroy’s evolving love affair with the U.S. Open. He has the longest consecutive top-10 streak in the event, with five, and has adopted the hardnosed mentality that these exacting conditions require.
“It’s a lot different than the golf that we play week-in, week-out,” he said. “I really appreciate that, and I’ve started to appreciate golf-course architecture more and more as the years have went on, and I’ve started to read more about it and understand why golf-course architects do certain things and design courses the way that they do. Just becoming more of a student of the game again, and I think because of that, I’ve started to embrace golf courses like this and setups like this.”
Because of that shift, McIlroy was able to score a rare personal victory over Scheffler – it was just the second time he’s bettered him, head to head, in their past nine rounds together.
“When you’ve been out here for 16 or 17 years, sometimes you need a little extra to get the juices going,” McIlroy said, “and being in a group like that definitely helps.”
So does being six shots clear of the game’s best player. Suddenly, the path forward looks a bit clearer.
