Scottie Scheffler is dull.
That used to be a commonplace theme this week at TPC Sawgrass the place Scheffler gained the 2023 Players Championship in Secretariat-like model by way of 5 strokes over Tyrrell Hatton and seven over Viktor Hovland. That dull taste matched an unwillingness to emote, and it led Scheffler to walk down the stretch to the $4.5 million winner’s handbag.
That’s the tale, anyway, and it is informed as though, come what may, it is a unhealthy factor.
While it is true that Scheffler eschews the high-wire act of a Jordan Spieth and the “I can hit any shot you can possibly think of” drama of a Justin Thomas, additionally it is true that dull golfing has been the via line of the absolute best gamers in the historical past of this game.
When performed as it should be at its the easiest degree, golfing is now not precisely meant to be a thrill trip. That some gamers make it such says extra about the positive line the ones gamers stroll each and every event than it does about their talent to win the largest occasions in the global.
“Don’t ever aim the ball at trouble” is how Jack Nicklaus contextualized it throughout the Memorial Tournament final yr as a part of an extended dialogue about route control.
“Don’t ever aim the ball at out of bounds. Don’t ever aim the ball at a lake. You always aim away from it. And if you have to play back towards it, make sure that you can’t hook it enough to get there or make sure you can’t fade it enough to get to it.”
If you had $1 for each time an announcer mentioned “that’s a smart shot” this week whilst Scheffler performed his approach to a 6th PGA Tour championship in his first 97 begins, you need to have just about funded the Players Championship handbag.
Though Scheffler did not lead after Round 1 and even Round 2, his weekend onslaught and championship victory nonetheless felt inevitable. Perhaps that’s as a result of he used to be worse than box reasonable together with his putter in each and every of the first two rounds and nonetheless lingered round the best of the board. It used to be like when Steph Curry posting 35 at halftime with out hitting a 3-pointer.
This used to be all a part of the plan entering the week: strike balls into oblivion and hope you are making sufficient putts to return out on best. Scheffler pounded vegetables, and even if he did omit, he did so in spots that may just result in good fortune, like on the par-3 eighth hollow on Sunday the place he chipped in for his first birdie of the day.
“That was just a good example of me playing smart there,” mentioned Scheffler. “If you miss it pin high on that hole to either of those pins you’re more than likely going to make a bogey. So all we were doing there was just trying to aim for the front edge, and I hit a really good shot and the wind hit it and pushed it a little left.
“If I wasn’t taking part in that good, I’d were in a in point of fact difficult place. I used to be able the place there wasn’t a very easy chip, but it surely used to be an overly gettable up-and-down and simply lucky to look it pass in.”
From the soar at TPC Sawgrass, Scheffler aimed the ball clear of bother. He performed to the fats a part of nearly each inexperienced and neglected on the correct aspect of each fairway. To glance via his Shotlink holes is to get a masterclass in the right way to arrange a golfing route: clear of water on method pictures, drives and the whole lot in between.
“I think it’s very challenging,” mentioned Scheffler about TPC Sawgrass before the event began. “If we were playing a video game, I don’t think it would be very challenging. But it’s golf, and there’s elements, and it’s challenging. And you don’t always hit it where you are looking, so anytime on this golf course — basically on any hole, anytime you get out of position here — it’s a very challenging hole. But if you’re hitting every shot exactly how you want to, which is pretty much impossible in a round of golf, it’s pretty easy.”
Shotlink
Shotlink
A statistician who advises golfers described Scheffler’s dispersion development as tight and described how he strikes that dispersion to the correct aspect extra incessantly than maximum. It’s now not that Scheffler by no means hits a foul shot or does not omit the spot he is aiming at. It’s simply that when he does it does not price him multiple stroke.
“It is a physical chess match,” said Tiger Woods, who performed much more dull golfing than maximum suppose, after all control at the PGA Tour degree. “When you hear me say, ‘I missed the golf ball in the correct spots,’ that’s part of the course management side of it.”
This all sounds very simple, and in some ways it is easy, however skilled golfers — in particular nice ones — are incessantly so assured of their abilities that taking part in good, cheap … dull pictures is in truth now not as mentally simple as it kind of feels like it must be.
It calls for an unusual quantity of self-discipline, endurance and acceptance.
The turn aspect is that various golfer have dull video games, however nearly none are as talented at the fundamentals as Scheffler. He’s marrying an international category skillset — Spieth mentioned Scheffler’s willingness to hit ridiculous brief pictures, announcing, “he’s got great hands” — with in all probability the absolute best route control in the game.
The trick right here — and this is Scheffler’s secret sauce — is to mix that comical degree of self-belief all nice gamers possess with a capability to put down the delight that comes with making an attempt to tackle each shot and pull at each pin. Scheffler definitely is not best at it, however he is confirmed himself to be higher than maximum.
“I just stick to my routine,” mentioned Scheffler on Saturday after taking a two-stroke lead over Min Woo Lee going into the ultimate spherical. “That’s pretty much it. Just remember to breathe, and breathing is part of my routine, and I’ve imagined being in those moments and so I know that I’m prepared to be in them. All I can do is just try and hit a got and after that the rest isn’t up to me.”
Here’s how Nicklaus mentioned it: “I thought I was pretty good at what I did, but I didn’t trust it that much.”
There’s now not a extra apt description for the taste of golfing Scheffler performs than that.
Spieth and others like him have conditioned the ones people staring at to consider that “boring” golfing is unhealthy and “exciting” golfing is excellent. Maybe so on the subject of leisure worth, however reasonably the reverse is true if a golfer desires to win world-class occasions with consistency.
Scheffler’s demeanor — additionally categorised by way of some as dull — additionally fits his route control; each are constructed for greatness.
Is it extra a laugh to observe Spieth elevate on about the wind and the spin and the means the Earth’s axis is affecting his fade? Absolutely. Do I enjoyment of seeing Jon Rahm throw his palms to the heavens at each ball that does not drop? You guess.
But Scheffler’s bodily plan and psychological execution fit each and every different in peacefulness (bordering on the dull). And that’s kind of the level. He infrequently will get too excessive or too low, a ability he mentioned he is nonetheless finding out and operating on.
Not everybody calls for Scheffler’s on-course demeanor to be triumphant — Spieth has 3 majors, in spite of everything — however it is tough to take action constantly in case your golfing is not most commonly drama-free.
After beginning his occupation 0-for-70, Scheffler has all of sudden gained six of his final 27 begins. They’ve all been monsters: two Phoenix Opens, a Masters, a Players, the Match Play and the “worst” win of all of them, final yr’s Arnold Palmer Invitational. It’s a run with no sign of ending as a result of, like Rahm, Scheffler is not striking out of his thoughts (he used to be box reasonable this week), and he is not in point of fact reaching anything else out of doors of his baseline talent.
You would possibly even say his profitable, like his golfing, has turn out to be repetitive and monotonous.
In many ways, this week showed the theme about Scheffler. It’s an even narrative, even though the implication is unsuitable.
If you are in search of someone to make you really feel one thing on the route, Scheffler is now not your man.
But if you are in search of someone to execute a blueprint that ends up in profitable the whole lot in sight, Scheffler is just about in a league of his personal.
So, it is truthful to name Scottie Scheffler “boring,” so long as you know that dull golfing, by way of design, is brilliant.