Before he had won on the PGA Tour, before he had played in a Ryder Cup, before he had ever played in the British Open, Scottie Scheffler headed to the Scottish Open.
It was the first time he ever played links golf or even been in the United Kingdom.
For most, the adjustment to links golf is among the biggest challenges in the game. The turf is firm, the style of play is different, the conditions can be frustrating, to put it mildly.
It was a long time ago. All the way back to 2021.
The Scottish Open that year was played during COVID-19 and without spectators. Scheffler, who had yet to emerge as the force he is today, shot a second-round 63 at the Renaissance Club and ended up tied for 12th.
The following week, he tied for eighth in his first Open, the tournament won by Collin Morikawa at Royal St. George’s. It was his third straight top 10 in a major championship that year and probably should have been a sign of more to come. The following year, he won the Masters.
Links golf? No problem.
“I love this style of golf,” Scheffler said Wednesday in advance of this week’s Genesis Scottish Open. “I don’t know if adjusting my game would be the way to describe it. You just hit more shots than I typically practice. You use a little bit more of the tools that I have over here. You get to play a lot of different shots, high, low, and that’s something that I’ve always enjoyed, being able to work the ball and hit different types of shots.
“Like I said, it’s fun for me to come over here and use those tools.”
Scheffler has seemed to adapt quite well. He’s played the Scottish Open three times previously, and while he missed the cut in 2022, he tied for third two years ago when Rory McIlroy was the winner.
In four Open appearances, Scheffler has fared no worse than 23rd, with a tie for eighth at Royal St. George’s and a tie for seventh last year at Royal Troon.
While this is a good tune-up for next week’s Open at Royal Portrush—where Scheffler has never played—he says it’s more than just looking ahead a week.
“There’s definitely a certain aspect of getting preparation for next week but definitely am not looking at next week,” Scheffler said. “This is an important tournament for me, and this is a tournament I want to play well in. And if I wanted to just do preparation, I would have gone and played some other golf courses for fun. There’s other ways to get prep than coming over and playing tournament golf. It was important for me to get over here.
“Tournament golf is a little bit different than just playing for fun. Being here in the right conditions and in the wind and getting used to the time and stuff like that. But by no means am I showing up at this tournament to prepare for next week. It’s a tournament that’s important for me and a tournament I’d like to play well in.”
Scheffler, who has three victories this year including the PGA Championship, is seemingly in good shape as far as the rest of the season, with more than a 1,000-point lead over McIlroy in FedEx Cup points (a win this week is worth 500 points, next week is 750 but wins in the playoffs are worth 2,000 points).
As much as he enjoys this type of golf, Scheffler said he has yet to experience much of the way in surrounding links courses. Muirfield, which last hosted the Open in 2013, is right down the road. Nearby Gullane has hosted the Scottish Open in the past and the West Links in North Berwick is a popular tourist destination that numerous players have sampled this week.
But other than going to Turnberry last year in advance of the Open at nearby Troon, Scheffler has kept it simple.
And it helps explain why he’s not been much for the international travel to this point.
“I always come over here and try to play this tournament and the Open Championship,” he said. “I haven’t played in Asia or Australia yet as a professional. Really, with the way our schedule is on Tour, the thing that’s most important to me is my time at home. It would be wonderful to be able to play an international schedule, but right now we play most of our tournaments in the States and I come over here for these few weeks.
“The offseason for us is typically where guys will go play in Asia and Australia or start the year in Dubai. For me, it’s important to get time at home because that’s my priority and playing tournaments that I can.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as On the Eve of the British Open, Scottie Scheffler Is Focused on the Scottish.
