{"id":15725,"date":"2026-06-05T03:07:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T03:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/15725\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T03:07:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T03:07:20","slug":"scottie-scheffler-gets-heated-after-hitting-water-ball-at-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/15725\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottie Scheffler gets heated after hitting water ball at Memorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated June 4, 2026, 9:33 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

DUBLIN, Ohio \u2014 Scottie Scheffler<\/a> stepped out of a fairway bunker on the 17th hole of his opening round at the Memorial Tournament, and his frustration showed.<\/p>\n

Opting for a new club, a 7-iron, the Memorial\u2019s champion the past two years<\/a> jammed his initial club back into his bag with aggression. He didn\u2019t slam it, exactly, but any weekend duffer could relate to the top-player in the world<\/a> in that moment at Muirfield Village Golf Club.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Scheffler had just taken a double bogey on the 16th hole, a par-3 into a tricky wind, and his 316-yard drive to start the 17th landed on the beach to the right of the fairway. It was that kind of day for Scheffler, whose sour luck abruptly changed.<\/p>\n

Scheffler\u2019s shot from the bunker traveled 177 yards, landed 15 feet, 6 inches from the hole in the short grass off the green, and he chipped in from there for a birdie.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat one, I kind of hit thin, and you get a good bounce, and I end up on the fringe and I chip in,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cSo, you\u2019re just like, \u2018All right.\u2019 What a game. I felt like I didn\u2019t get anything out of the round. All of a sudden, you just get a lucky bounce and you\u2019re like, \u2018Okay, well, I\u2019m going to try to smile.\u2019 It\u2019s still hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a>\"Scottie<\/p>\n

It could\u2019ve been harder.<\/p>\n

Scheffler, who’s trying to become just the second golfer to win the Memorial three straight years, is tied for 33rd after the first round. His work is cut out to catch a lead pack of four golfers at 5 under going into the June 5 second round, but Scheffler is within six shots of the lead.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, this one, is it really that slow of a start?\u201d he said. \u201cHow low are the scores this afternoon? You know what I mean? All I can do is compete with kind of the hand I\u2019ve been given, and teeing off last on this golf course is challenging. A day like today, I\u2019m not sure, from where our tee times were, if there was going to be very many low rounds out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Scottie<\/p>\n

Scheffler and Aaron Rai teed off at 1:35 p.m., and only two pairs in the field of 72 teed off later. That\u2019s a lot of time for fast greens to add more speed as they harden, making Jack Nicklaus\u2019 course even more of a bear when combined with occasional wind gusts.<\/p>\n

Scheffler and Rai will start the second round at 10:35 a.m., right in the middle of the pairings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wind is just hard to predict,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot you\u2019ve got to think about, and I think it gets even more challenging when the greens are this firm and the wind is unpredictable, especially on a day where the wind felt like it was going to be lighter, and it was for most of the day. \u2026 I think it just shows kind of how tough the golf course is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Scottie<\/p>\n

Rai, winner of this year\u2019s PGA Championship, found it just as challenging. He also finished +1, like Scheffler, and trails the lead group of Wyndham Clark, Tommy Fleetwood, Ryan Gerard and J.J. Spaun by six strokes.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The greens are] extremely firm,\u201d Rai said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we expect from this course. That\u2019s why it\u2019s a pleasure to play here. It\u2019s quite a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Especially when shots that initially look good break bad due to course conditions, like what happened to Scheffler on his double-bogey 16th hole. His approach to a 206-yard par 3 landed short of the green and bounced into a water hazard despite feeling like he’d got all of his 7-iron.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just another really good iron shot, and the wind switched from down off the right to pretty significantly in off the right,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cAll you can do is just try to hit good shots. It can be very frustrating sometimes when you feel like you\u2019re hitting good shots and then you’re going to the drop zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Golf Channel broadcast picked up Scheffler’s frustration in a heated chat with caddy Ted Scott as they walked to the drop zone.<\/p>\n

Scheffler battled again to save par on the 18th hole, keeping a fantastic drive in the fairway 328 yards off the tee box, but his approach to the green found another bunker. Getting up and down out of that mess for a par to stay at +1 felt like a fitting end to a difficult start.<\/p>\n

“It was just one of those deals where I felt like I was hitting some good shots, really,” Scheffler said. “I made a sloppy swing on [Hole 14] and outside of that, I hit what I felt was a lot of quality iron shots and didn’t really get much for it. I think that that’s the nature of how the golf course is, and kind of how difficult it can get.”<\/p>\n

Dispatch reporter Brian Hedger<\/a> can be reached atbhedger@dispatch.com<\/a> and@BrianHedger.bsky.social<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated June 4, 2026, 9:33 p.m. ET DUBLIN, Ohio \u2014 Scottie Scheffler stepped out of a fairway bunker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[58,1418,1235,1236,1237,1238,65,1240,80,1011,67,62],"class_list":["post-15725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-memorial-tournament","tag-accessfree","tag-memorial-tournament","tag-sourcethe-columbus-dispatch","tag-sstssportsgolfpga","tag-sstsnpga-tour","tag-tagaaron-rai","tag-taggolf","tag-tagmemorial-tournament","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagscottie-scheffler","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}