Scottie Scheffler doesn’t necessarily have to play his best to win the Tour Championship. He just has to make sure Xander Schauffele doesn’t outplay him by two strokes, and a similar number for most other players in the field. This is because he started the tournament at 10 under because of his number-one ranking.
However, it’s not changing how Scheffler approaches things. Even though he started the tournament in the pole position, he’s not altering how he’s playing this weekend. He claimed he isn’t thinking about his score advantage at all.
Scheffler said via Golf Digest:
“I’m trying not to think much about the starting strokes stuff. I think it’s still a bit weird with it not being a traditional event. But yeah, it was nice to get off to a good start in the first round, and I feel like I did a lot of things well today.”
Scheffler was brilliant in the first round, giving himself a tremendous lead to open the tournament. He was seven up after the first round. At the time of writing, he was still seven up on Schauffele and Collin Morikawa, who shot nine under. Scheffler is 16 under par already.
Part of that is due to his -10 starting line, but he’s also one of several players who shot quite well on Thursday. Adam Scott said he wasn’t surprised the scoring was so low since in his estimation, the groundskeepers took it easy on them with pin placement and other factors for the course this weekend. It’s a totally new course, but it hasn’t yet proven to be a huge challenge for the field.
Scottie Scheffler isn’t concerned with leading Tour Championship
Right now, it’s Scottie Scheffler’s Tour Championship to lose. The golfer, who has seven wins this season alone including the Masters and the Paris Olympics, is in line for an eighth, but he’s not worrying about the leaderboard yet. Despite a seven-stroke lead, Scheffler stated he’s just focused on playing golf.
Scottie Scheffler isn’t focused on the lead he’s enjoying (Imagn)
The world number one added that he doesn’t think about his lead at the tournament. Scheffler was quoted as saying (via Golf Digest):
“There’s no reason to. It’s the first day of the tournament. It’s 72 holes. It’s a long time out there to be playing with a lead or whatever it is. I was just focused on staying in my own world and continuing to just try to execute.”
Things can change quickly across a golf tournament, but Scottie Scheffler has done well to put himself in a good spot moving forward. There are still three rounds to be played, but Scheffler’s form and his starting score give him a great shot at capturing another win.
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Edited by Prathik BR
