LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Scottie Scheffler started with a bang and showed little rust in his first competitive round since taking three weeks off for the birth of his son.
Scheffler’s approach from 167 yards at the first hole bounced a few feet in front of the hole and hopped into the cup for an eagle. Welcome back!
“It was a stock 9-iron. I was trying to hit it right at the pin because I felt like if I hit it the right way, the shortest it was going to go was on the pin,” he explained. “I felt like it was going to go a little past the pin if anything, and it was nice to see that one go in, obviously.”
Scheffler fired a 4-under 67 at Valhalla Golf Club on Thursday in the opening round of the 106th PGA Championship, extending his streak to 41 consecutive rounds at par-or-better dating to an even-par final-round 70 at the 2023 Tour Championship. He sits T-12 and trails leader Xander Schauffele by five strokes.
“I mean, there’s nothing I can do. Xander went out and played a great round this morning and I’m not really going to worry about trying to shoot 9 under. I’m just going to go out and try to hit good shots and play my own game,” said Scheffler.
The world No. 1 has been a force to be reckoned with, winning in four of his last five starts, including the Masters and RBC Heritage back-to-back before heading home to Dallas to await the birth of son Bennett.
“I’m in amazement,” Keegan Bradley told CBS. “There are certain guys that can excel extremely at one aspect of the game but it seems like Scottie is excelling at almost everything.”
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The last two No. 1s who teed it up in a PGA Championship at Valhalla – Tiger Woods (2000) and McIlroy (2014) – won the tournament. That’s a good omen for Scheffler. Just how good has his recent run been? Scheffler has four wins in 10 starts this season. That is a higher winning percentage than the current records of Major League Baseball’s Rockies, White Sox, Marlins, Astros, and Angels. He’s bidding to become the first player since Jordan Spieth in 2015 – and only the fifth player since 1960 – to win the first two majors of the year.
But Golf Channel’s Paul McGinley pointed out that if Scheffler has five gears, he only used three on Thursday. He still made an eagle and four birdies against two bogeys, one of which was a three-putt at No. 14 in which he seethed afterward lipping out from 4 feet, but bounced back with his final birdie of the day at 15. Scheffler’s tee-to-green was on point as usual: according to stats maven Justin Ray, Scheffler gained 5+ shots on the field in a major championship round for the sixth time since the beginning of 2022. No other player in that span has more than three such rounds. Nevertheless, after a long round and with an 8:48 am. ET tee time on Friday, Scheffler still rushed to the range to iron out a few wrinkles, working with swing coach Randy Smith and putting coach Phil Kenyon.
“I felt like there was a couple things I can clean up going into tomorrow, but overall today was a solid round,” Scheffler said.