07/14/26 12:28:00
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07/14 12:26 CDT Scottie Scheffler hits the reset button for the British Open
after a rare missed cut
Scottie Scheffler hits the reset button for the British Open after a rare
missed cut
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
SOUTHPORT, England (AP) --- Scottie Scheffler finally heard about the text his
PGA Tour friend never sent, a reminder that even the No. 1 player in golf with
four majors and more than 20 victories doesn't know everything.
It was a list of things to do on the weekend after missing the cut.
"He was like: ?Hey, you can practice at the facilities. You can still go to the
gym. You can also go to the next tournament.' It was basically all my options,"
Scheffler said Tuesday. "He never sent it to me, but he told me about it."
The reason the text was created --- without being sent, to Scheffler's
disappointment --- was missing the cut at the Scottish Open, his first missed
cut in nearly four years, a streak of 78 consecutive cuts that was the longest
since Tiger Woods set the record (142) from 1998 to 2005.
Frustrating, yes. Despair? Hardly.
"You never want to have a weekend off, but going into a tournament when you're
defending, there's always a bit more stuff to do," Scheffler said. "So it
wasn't the world thing in the world."
Among his duties was officially returning the claret jug he won last year at
Royal Portrush, a ritual the Royal & Ancient has turned into a ceremony. Then,
it was playing an exhibition with Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose
and others.
But key to Scheffler's early arrival was Royal Birkdale, which has hosted the
British Open more than any other links course in England since it first joined
the rotation in 1954.
He had never seen it. Scheffler had not seen conditions like this --- a
combination of yellow and brown, which translates to firm and fiery in a links
vocabulary. St. Andrews came close in 2022, but Jon Rahm recalls the greens
still being soft enough to allow for low scoring.
Scheffler ticked off two items on his friend's list --- he went to the gym in
Scotland and then headed to the next tournament. That allowed him time to play
18 holes on Sunday, and to limit his energy in sunbaked Blighty to nine holes
on Monday and Tuesday.
His general assessment: "The ball is just going to run forever."
Is it driver to take it over the bunkers and possibly reach the green on the
393-yard, downwind 16th hole, or hit iron off the tee? Is the redesigned fifth
hole at 321 yards worth trying to reach with a pond to the right, a series of
bunkers short and a wee part of a wee burn to the left?
"On each hole there's a good bit of strategy. There's a decent amount of
thinking," Scheffler said. "If it wasn't as firm as it is now, there would be
as much decision-making. But I think with the firmness, it creates a whole lot
more challenges."
Rose is among four players --- and at 45, the youngest --- to have played Royal
Birkdale three times in the Open dating to 1998. He was a 17-year-old amateur
that year, full of joy and optimism when he holed out a wedge for birdie on the
18th to tie for fourth. He didn't finish in the top 50 his two times as a
professional.
Rose certainly has more experience than Scheffler, but only to a point.
"A links course is interesting because you never really get to know them that
well," Rose said. "Like 2008 I think it was, weather was dreadful. It was wet.
You might have been hitting 2-irons and 3-woods into par 4s, and now you could
be flicking 52-degree wedges.
"A golf course can play so differently decade to decade when we come back that
you never really get to know the course that well."
Scheffler said he felt at peace about his game, and he certainly looked the
part. His game didn't look deplorable in the Scottish Open, just a matter of
not hitting it terribly close and not making many putts and then moving on.
It was no less frustrating --- Scheffler is a killer when it comes to
competing, which is one reason he has been No. 1 longer than anyone since Woods
--- but it was filled with perspective.
"I don't think it hurts as much as coming close to winning and finishing
second," Scheffler said. "I felt like coming in second at Travelers hurt more
than missing the cut, but missing the cut is significantly more frustrating is
how I would describe it."
He's had plenty of experience finishing second. Scheffler's lone victory this
year was his first tournament in January at The American Express. Since then,
he has had four runner-up finishes, including the Masters. The most recent was
a playoff loss to Viktor Hovland at the Travelers Championship two weeks ago
when Scheffler missed a 4-foot slider.
"I think just towards the end of the season, you get a little tired," Scheffler
said. "I got a couple days off, reset the mind, reset the body, and just kind
of get back to feeling even and at peace. I've had a very solid year, but like
I said, frustrating at times because I've been close and I haven't been able to
get it done like I have been in years past.
"I'm excited to try and defend my title this week."
That hasn't been done at the British Open since 2008 when Padraig Harrington
won at Royal Birkdale. One week could change Scheffler's outlook on the year.
But it's a week that presents a test the likes of which he hasn't seen all year.
___
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