LOS ANGELES — It has been a while since Scottie Scheffler has been able to say this after a tournament round: “I rolled it nice, saw some putts go in. Pretty good.’’
That’s pretty good timing, this being a U.S. Open and all.
Scheffler, the No. 1 ranked player in the world, has been putting like the 100th-ranked player in the world of late and it has been holding him back.
His ball-striking has been world class, worthy of a few more wins, but he had lost his putting touch.
Scheffler finished one shot out of playoffs in his previous two tournaments — the Colonial and the Memorial — despite posting otherworldly ball-striking metrics.
In the Memorial, he lost more than eight strokes to the field in putting.
But on Thursday, in the first round of the U.S. Open, Scheffler was better with the flat stick and it showed in his 3-under 67, though he did end his day with a three-putt bogey on 18.
“Had a little hiccup there at the last but can’t complain,’’ said Scheffler, who won the Waste Management and the Players Championship this year. “I hit a lot of good shots today and I did a good job of staying patient out there and posted a good number on a day in which I got off to a pretty slow start.’’
Scheffler, whose lone major championship win was the 2022 Masters, said he embraces the challenge of the U.S. Open, where low scores are not always required.
“I like competing,’’ he said. “I like playing against the best players. I like hard golf courses. So, I guess those all kind of line up with the majors. For me it’s a fun challenge. For instance, today I started on 1, and 1 is probably the easiest if not the second easiest hole on the golf course. I hit a good drive and it ends up in the lip of the bunker, and I don’t really have a shot advancing it down the fairway.
“There’s literally one place on the entire hole you can hit it where you won’t have a shot, and my ball found its way in there. And not only that, it found its way to the downslope, too, which is even worse. In regular tournaments, stuff like that can really hurt you, and in the majors you just feel like you can kind of wait for your moments and hit really good shots. And today, I kind of waited for my moments and hit the nice shot at No. 9 and made a good putt and then just got on a good run there and was able to capitalize.
“I just feel like the challenge of everything suits my game better than some of the easier tests that we see on Tour throughout the year.’’