Scottie Scheffler didn’t shoot his way out of the U.S. Open on Day 1, but it wasn’t the opening round he hoped for. And there’s one stat that best sums up why the World No. 1 is off to a slow start at Shinnecock Hills.
Scheffler found 12 of 14 fairways on Thursday, so clearly his driver wasn’t the problem. His irons? That was a different story.
Despite putting himself in good shape off the tee on nearly every par 4 and par 5, Scheffler failed to capitalize with his approach shots. For the day, the four-time major champ only hit half of Shinnecock’s greens in regulation and finished with a two-over-par 72.
That combination, as you might imagine, is rather unusual for Scheffler. In fact, according to stats guru Justin Ray, it’s the first time in Scheffler’s career that he’s has hit that many fairways and hit less than 11 greens.
Those who have been following Scheffler’s season know his iron play has been down from his lofty standards. After leading the PGA Tour in strokes gained: approach the past three seasons, Scheffler only ranks 16th in that all-important stat this season.
At the time of this post, he ranked 132nd in the field in that metric. And it doesn’t take a stats guru to know that he’s going to need to improve a lot in that area if he’s going to complete the career Grand Slam this week.
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