By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer
OAKMONT, Pa. — Scottie Scheffler doesn’t care what the oddsmakers think or what people say about his status as the overwhelming favorite in this U.S. Open, and pretty much everywhere he plays.
But he can hear them – and sometimes, he hears from them.
“That’s why I had to get rid of my Venmo, because I was either getting paid by people or people requesting me a bunch of money when I didn’t win. It wasn’t a good feeling,” Scheffler said with a laugh Tuesday at Oakmont.
It wasn’t entirely clear if he was kidding.
He did say later the most anyone tried to pay him for a win – he has won 19 times worldwide in just over three years – was a couple of dollars.
“That didn’t happen nearly as much as the requests did,” he said.
Perhaps the most telling number for Scheffler, No. 1 in the world ranking for the longest streak since Tiger Woods in the late 2000s, is that he has won 25% of his tournaments since capturing his first PGA Tour title at the Phoenix Open in 2022.
He has won three of his past four tournaments – including his third major at the PGA Championship last month at Quail Hollow – by a combined 17 shots. There’s a lot of numbers that define his dominance in golf.
None of it matters to him.
“I don’t pay attention to the favorite stuff or anything like that,” he said. “Starting Thursday morning, we’re at even par and it’s up to me to go out there and play against the golf course and see what I can do.”
That doesn’t figure to be easy. Oakmont is considered the toughest golf course in America, and the last few days of practice rounds have not changed anyone’s opinions. Most of the attention is on the rough that covers the tops of shoes. Sunshine on Tuesday made the greens feel even faster after a few days of rain. Scheffler thinks the bunkers are underrated.
The overall consensus?
“Man, it’s just tough,” Collin Morikawa said.
Scheffler would seem to have a game built for this given his extraordinary ability to control his golf ball from tee-to-green. He has yet to win his national open, though he had chances at Los Angeles (2023), Brookline (2022) and Torrey Pines (2021).
The exception was last year at Pinehurst No. 2, where Scheffler was never in the mix. One reason might be the schedule – the Memorial was the week before the U.S. Open last year, another tough test that Scheffler won and never felt he had a chance to catch his breath.
He won the Memorial again this year.
“Having the week off was really important for me to get home, get some rest, recover, and I showed up here on Sunday and was able to play maybe 11 holes and really get used to the conditions,” Scheffler said. “It feels much more like my normal major prep, versus last year where you’re coming in from basically a major championship test. Coming into another one is pretty challenging.”
Rory McIlroy had a few extra days off after missing the cut in the Canadian Open last week, giving him time to find a driver that will help find the fairways at Oakmont, perhaps the most critical part of this test.
McIlroy and Scheffler were listed as close to co-favorites after McIlroy won the Masters, giving him the career Grand Slam. He already had won three times on some of golf’s biggest stages. Scheffler at that point had yet to win this year.
So much has changed in the last two months. McIlroy spoke at the PGA Championship of still wanting to achieve more in golf, knowing that nothing will ever beat that feeling of finally becoming a Masters champion to join the most exclusive club of players with all four majors.
He spoke last week of lacking motivation when getting ready for the Canadian Open.
“At some point, you have to realize that there’s a little bit more golf left to play this season,” said McIlroy, singling out Oakmont, the British Open in his native Northern Ireland and the Ryder Cup in September.
“But I think weeks like Quail Hollow or even weeks like last week, it makes it easier to reset in some way, to be like, OK, I sort of need to get my stuff together here and get back to the process and sort of what I’d been doing for that seven months from October last year until April this year.”
For Scheffler, he’s been on such a roll that how he plays will be a big part in the chances the rest of the field has.
Jordan Spieth was asked about Dustin Johnson – only Scheffler has been at No. 1 longer in the last 10 years – and Spieth immediately turned it into a conversation about his Dallas neighbor.
“Scottie’s level is something I haven’t seen personally out here,” Spieth said. “I play with him at home, too. He might pull an iron shot once and then hit the pin on his chip.”
The margin for error is smaller at Oakmont than on most courses, mainly because of all the trouble off the tee – bunkers and dense rough – and challenges on the fast greens.
“I think everybody knows this is probably the toughest golf course in the world right now, and you have to hit the fairways, you have to hit greens, and you have to two-putt, worst-case scenario,” defending champion Bryson DeChambeau said.
“When you’ve got those putts inside 10 feet, you’ve got to make them. It’s a great test of golf. I’m looking forward to it. I’m sure everybody else is.”
RAHM: SMALLER FIELDS MAKE TOP-10s EASIER IN LIV GOLF
Two-time major champion Jon Rahm comes into the U.S. Open off another top 10 at LIV Golf, which is nothing new. The Spaniard has never come in lower in the 20 events he has finished since joining the Saudi-backed league at the start of last year.
Is that a big deal?
“I would happily trade a bunch of them for more wins, that’s for sure,” said Rahm, who has two LIV victories but has yet to win this year. “But I keep putting myself in good position.”
One of the criticism of LIV is the 54-man fields over 54 holes, especially with a half-dozen or more considered past their prime and several unproven young players.
Rahm delivered some context on his streak.
“Listen, I’m a realist in this case,” he said. “I’ve been playing really good golf, yes, but I’d be lying if I said that it wasn’t easier to have top 10s with a smaller field. That’s just the truth, right? Had I been playing full-field events, would I have top 10 every single week? No. But I’ve been playing good enough to say that I would most likely have been inside the top 30 every single time and maybe even top 25.”
He considered that impressive, and he figures most of those would be top 10s.
Rahm tied for eighth last week in Virginia without ever having a serious chance of winning over the final few holes. He said against a full field, he doubts that would have been a top 10.
“I think winning is equally as hard, but you can take advantage of a smaller field to finish higher,” he said. “As much as I want to give it credit personally for having that many top 10s, I wouldn’t always give it as the full amount just knowing that it’s a smaller field.”
DeCHAMBEAU AND LIV
Bryson DeChambeau says the contract he signed to join Saudi-funded LIV Golf is up next year and he’s already looking ahead to a new one.
“We’re looking to negotiate end of this year, and I’m very excited. They see the value in me. I see the value in what they can provide, and I believe we’ll come to some sort of resolution on that,” DeChambeau said Tuesday. “Super excited for the future.”
LIV contracts are confidential and there has been ample speculation whether the Public Investment Fund will shell out the kind of signing bonuses that helped lure players away from the PGA Tour in 2022.
Meanwhile, unification with the PGA Tour and LIV Golf appears at a standstill as PIF officials want any future to include team golf.
“I think that LIV is not going anywhere,” DeChambeau said.
He said Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor behind the rival league, “has been steadfast in his belief on team golf, and whether everybody believes in it or not, I think it’s a viable option.”
DeChambeau believes LIV is going in the right direction and referenced the indoor tech-infused TGL as having teams making money.
“I believe there is a sustainable model out there,” he said. “How it all works with the game of golf, who knows? But I know my worth.”
XANDER AND YOUTUBE
Xander Schauffele might spend less time on his phone than anyone, usually only scrolling through the news. A few weeks ago at the Memorial, during a rapid-fire series of random questions, he was asked who he would take with him on “The Amazing Race” reality show.
“What’s ‘The Amazing Race,’” he asked.
So when he was told about Tommy Fleetwood’s latest venture with YouTube and asked if he would consider doing something like that, Schauffele replied, “Is that like a serious question?”
But he has spent time on YouTube for a reason. Schauffele made his U.S. Open debut in 2017, the year after the Open at Oakmont. What better way to check out the course than watching a U.S. Open at Oakmont?
“I watched some of the ’16 coverage on YouTube. I would have watched it on any platform that would have been provided, but I watched some of that coverage there just to see sort of how guys were hitting shots and how the ball was reacting,” Schauffele said.
Turns out that wasn’t his first experience on YouTube.
“I’ve been in dark places where I’ve looked up swing tip things on YouTube as well, trying to make sense of it, just like every golfer has. I’ll confess to it,” he said. “I’m luckily not there anymore, which is probably healthy for myself and my family.
“Yeah, there’s a lot on there, I can tell you that much.”
RORY AND HIS DRIVER
Rory McIlroy expressed concern about his driver after badly missing the cut in the Canadian Open, his last tournament ahead of the U.S. Open.
He said he worked at home over the weekend and realized he was using the wrong driver. And he was coy about which one he was using, suggesting that people could always go to the range to find out for themselves.
McIlroy got plenty of attention with his driver when it was leaked at the PGA Championship that his driver did not pass inspection. It’s a common occurrence, and testing takes place randomly at every major. Scottie Scheffler also had to change drivers after his didn’t pass the test. He wound up winning by five shots.
So was that a problem for McIlroy at the PGA Championship?
“It wasn’t a big deal for Scottie,” McIlroy said. “So it shouldn’t have been a big deal for me.”
THE BEST HONORARY MEMBER
Dustin Johnson had not played Oakmont since the won the U.S. Open in 2016. That’s not to say he hasn’t been back to the fabled club. Oakmont Country Club honors its major champions by offering them honorary membership.
Johnson went back a few years later for the honor, going to a dinner and getting his green jacket (he got the more famous green jacket a few years later at the Masters).
Honorary membership has its privileges that Johnson doesn’t use.
“I’m probably their favorite member because I never come,” he said.
Oakmont need not to be offended. Johnson was asked how many clubs he had honorary membership with and he didn’t bother counting.
“Quite a few,” he said. “And I don’t use very many, either.”
AP sports writer Eddie Pells contributed to this story.