SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – Part of the fun of golfing at the Olympics is the chance to watch other athletes. Rory McIlroy went to tennis on Wednesday and other golfers have gone to various events at the Paris Games.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler was at Tuesday night’s gymnastics team final with his wife and baby, watching the USA women capture gold.
“I was amazed at their poise,” Scheffler said Thursday after shooting a 4-under 67 in the opening round of the Olympic tournament at Le Golf National. “They compete for years and years and years. … For one tournament to have such an emphasis every four years is really challenging.
“If I had a bad week this week, I could take a week off and I’d still have another great chance to kind of prove it to myself that I could do it under the biggest lights.”
Gymnast Suni Lee made the biggest impression on Scheffler, because while warming up on the uneven bars “she face-planted on the mat coming off the top bar.”
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“It’s like a shank (in golf) except somebody also like simultaneously punched you in the face at the same time. I don’t really know how to equate it to golf. … First of all, it’s really going to hurt, and it’s going to throw you off. Five minutes later, she’s got to go up there and do her routine in front of the entire world and really be judged for a long time on that one specific routine.”
“And then,” Scheffler added, “flawless. It was awesome.”
Scheffler was asked Thursday if he looked at other U.S. Olympic legends like Simone Biles or Katie Ledecky and thought of himself – as the world’s No. 1 golfer – in a similar fashion.
“Not really,” Scheffler said.
“To compare golf to (Ledecky) is fairly challenging. I think she has like the 20 best times in the 1500. That would be like me shooting the lowest 20 scores on tour … So (it is) me shooting 57 20 times. I’m probably going to have to practice a little harder.”