Scottie Scheffler Had a Bad Day at the U.S. Open, But It's Only One Day
Scottie Scheffler Had a Bad Day at the U.S. Open, But It’s Only One Day originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
Even the world no. 1 can have a bad day, but while the wounds were self-inflicted, the patient is still in the mix for his first U.S. Open title after a 3-under 73 at Oakmont Country Club on Thursday.
Silly mistakes, including four bogeys on the front nine early, caused the angst. Then, some key putts and saves gave the three-time major winner momentum to keep the round from getting away from him.
“Overall, I just feel like after today, I’ve probably got to give myself a few more looks,” Scheffler said. “A few sloppy bogeys today and would have been a little bit of a different story.”
Scheffler’s opening 73 was his worst first-round score in the U.S. Open in his career.
In 2016, when Scheffler shot 69 in the opening round at Oakmont, he missed the cut, making Thursday’s round somewhat problematic, but the Scheffler of 2016 is not the Scheffler of today.
“The golf course is just challenging. There’s certain holes where — like, you think of a hole like 12, where I hit a good drive off the tee. It gets down there in the first cut, and you think a reachable par-5 where you’ve got 6-iron in your hand is going to be a pretty good scoring opportunity. And I’m sitting there in the fairway going, I don’t know where I’m going to hit this thing,” Scheffler said. “Because if I hit it on line with the green, it’s going to go over the green and I’ve got a 50-yard chip back up the hill, and then if I miss it right, you kind of leave it up to the lie. And if I hit it left I’m going to have a bunker shot from basically 40 yards short of the green.”
Ultimately, Scheffler believes a few more looks and better execution on Friday will help clean up the sloppy bogeys and convert some holes to birdie looks.
Green speed was an issue on Thursday, and Scheffler was no different in trying to navigate the speed on greens, which became bumpier over time.
“There’s so much speed and so much pitch, and then with the amount of guys going through on these greens, they can get a little bit bumpy,” Scheffler said. “But you know that’s going to be part of the challenge going in. You’ve got to do your best to stay under the hole and stay patient.
As tricky as Oakmont is, Scheffler still believes the key exists to low scores.
“When you play these really difficult golf courses — I think there’s always opportunity for low scoring,” Scheffler said. “You look at the U.S. Open especially, you look at a tournament like they had at Shinnecock where guys are barely making the cut and all of a sudden, they have one good round and they’re back in the tournament, when you’re playing these types of tests that are this challenging, there’s usually still a way to score. I’m surprised somebody maybe didn’t even shoot a little bit lower today just because there’s opportunity.”
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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 13, 2025, where it first appeared.
