Scottie Scheffler walked off the 18th green Thursday at Silverado Resort and he wasn’t pleased but he also wasn’t all that bothered. The World No. 1 hadn’t played in a few weeks and he’s at the Procore Championship to shake off some rust, get into contention over the weekend and round into shape for the Ryder Cup in two weeks in New York.
But he did make a little news even though it didn’t seem top of mind.
Scheffler shot two-under 70 in the first round in Napa, Calif., making it the first time in 22 rounds that he failed to shoot a score in the 60s. The last time was a 72 during the third round of the Travelers Championship in late June, the week after the U.S. Open.
That week in Connecticut, Scheffler shot a final-round 65 and tied for sixth place. He then tied for eighth place at the Scottish Open before capturing the claret jug with a British Open victory at Royal Portrush, his second major of the year. Scheffler closed with a T-3 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, a victory at the BMW Championship and a fourth-place tie at the Tour Championship.
The streak of 21 ends up tying Patrick Cantlay for the best in the history of the PGA Tour.
Scheffler bogeyed the fourth hole, then rattled off birdies on Nos. 7, 8 and 10. A bogey on 11 set him back, but he made birdie on 16 and then, uncharacteristically, blew it way left off the par-5 18th tee box and was not able to make birdie, although his third shot onto the green was impressive coming from way left and having to travel over a massive tree and leaderboard. Still, the 70 ended the streak.
“I think it was a pretty frustrating day overall,” Scheffler said. “I felt like I did some things well out there, I just wasn’t quite getting the reward. Yeah, that’s pretty much it on my end.”
Mackenzie Hughes is at the top of the leaderboard, shooting 63 in the morning wave. But this week, even though many players are jockeying for tour status for next year, is about the 10 U.S. Ryder Cup team members who are playing.
U.S. captain Keegan Bradley is on hand and only watching. He is not playing. But he’s had plenty of meetings and dinners with his team and vice captains and was able to get his squad to play together and in the same late-early wave for the first two rounds.
Scheffler was grouped with J.J. Spaun and Russell Henley. Cameron Young, Ben Griffin and Justin Thomas were in another group. Harris English and Collin Morikawa played with vice captain Webb Simpson while Cantlay and Sam Burns played with another vice captain, Gary Woodland.
Griffin topped all 10 by shooting a bogey-free 64 to stand a shot off the lead. Henley was next shooting a 65 that included 10 birdies and three bogeys and Spaun shot a bogey-free 67. Harris, Morikawa, Cantlay, Young and Thomas all shot even-par 72. Thomas was four under after 10 holes but closed with bogeys on four of the last six holes.
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Main Image: Jed Jacobsohn
