Scottie Scheffler's frank response to silly scoring talk and pace of play gripes
World No.1 debates discussion over Travelers track and talks about quicker play
Sizzling Scottie Scheffler ripped TPC River Highlands apart and then claimed it's silly to merely measure course strength by winning scores.
At the same time, the current king of the game waded into the pace of play debate which is irritating golf fans. The World No.1 once again displayed his stunning skills with a magnificent 62 in the opening round of the Travelers Championship.
Two-timers Masters king and current PGA champion Scheffler threatened a 59 at one point only to bogey the penultimate hole of his first 18 which meant he had to settle for an eight-under par score and share of the day-one lead. It was another awesome exhibition of his brilliance, but he refuted the notion it was easy and says it's wrong to judge the standard of a test simply by the amount of shots under-par which starts are carding.
Scheffler, who shot two better than Rory McIlroy, explained: 'The conditions were really challenging out there. When I got out here to have breakfast this morning it was very calm. When I came out to do my warm-up it was still pretty calm. By the time I got to the first tee, it was blowing 20 miles an hour and it was sustained at that for most of our round.
'With the way I play golf, the more rough typically is going to be better for me. I hit a lot of fairways and a course like Oakmont [at US Open] I thought suited me really well just in terms of. Good ball-striking was going to be rewarded there. I just wasn't able to do it. I've always had a preference for the tougher tests that we have. That's always been my preference since I was a young kid.'
Subsequently asked if he enjoyed winning the CJ CUP Byron Nelson with a 31-under final total, he stated: 'Yeah, and to be fair, I won by a significant margin. I could have won it at 23-under. Also the PGA, same thing. It was still a pretty sizeable cushion. So I think to call the winning score when it's that big of a margin I think is a bit silly. 30-under? Actually, no. I won by eight.'
Scheffler also spoke about speed of play at TPC River Highlands which, with two-balls as opposed to three on day one as it was at Oakmont, were significantly faster than the painful six-hours slogs at the US Open which annoyed players and turned-off fans.
He said: 'I think if you're going to look at the pace of play debate, I think twosomes makes a significant difference in terms of what we can do for pace of play. You also have two completely different golf courses between Oakmont and this one. The distance between tees on this golf course is much shorter. The holes are also shorter. It's simpler to get around this place. Oakmont is a big piece of property where the tee boxes are far apart. The holes go back and forth, but you finish one hole and you walk 100 yards back to the next tee and it's also so difficult, you're hitting a lot more shots as well.'
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