PINEHURST, N.C. — The bad news for the 155 players other than Scottie Scheffler competing in the U.S. Open this week at Pinehurst No. 2 is that Brian Gillis isn’t in town.
The players seeking their third major championship this year might consider inviting the Louisville Metro police detectives who arrested Scheffler last month at the PGA Championship in Valhalla.
Because he is the only person who could stop the world number one ranked player from winning.
Scheffler comes into this week with five wins in eight starts this year. His worst finish was a tie for eighth at the PGA Tour, after Gillis arrested Scheffler for “dragging” him into a loaner vehicle as he was entering the golf course for his second round.
The charges were later dropped after video footage revealed that Gillis had exaggerated the incident in a police report and had not actually been “dragged.”
Asked Tuesday what the “most memorable thing” was about Scheffler’s incredible winning streak, which included Sunday’s victory at the Memorial, Rory McIlroy laughed and said, “The only thing that stopped me from winning a golf tournament was spending an hour in jail.”
Scheffler’s past eight results are win, win, runner-up, win, win, tie for eighth, runner-up and win.
Not since Tiger Woods has a player been in better form than Scheffler, and not since Woods’ prime has a player dominated the world rankings as much as Scheffler.
And that’s not all Scheffler is winning: He continues to win major tournaments, including the Arnold Palmer Invitational, The Players Championship, Masters, Memorial and RBC Heritage.
These are the premier events that bring together the best athletes in the sport.
“He’s the gold standard now and we all look up to him and think, ‘Okay, how do I get to that level?'” Bryson DeChambeau said Tuesday.
“When you start being compared to Tiger and what Tiger’s done, you know you’re on a pretty special level,” Jon Rahm said Tuesday. “To win five times in a season, to win Bay Hill, The Players, The Masters, RBC and the Memorial, the tournaments that he’s won, you’re basically recreating a Tiger Woods season.
“As a competitor, it’s obviously motivating to see someone else doing well because that’s what we all strive for.”
Ask other players what aspects of Scheffler’s game set him apart and the theme of their answers is the same: He does it all well and has no weaknesses.
“Everything seems fine,” Rahm said.
“Obviously, when I’m on a roll I can play well and compete with him, but he just seems to take that level of consistency to another level every week,” Viktor Hovlan said. “When you’re on a roll you can play some good games, but a lot of times you kind of go back to having a mediocre week, and his mediocre weeks are really, really good.”
“It definitely motivates me to try harder and get better and compete with him.”
DeChambeau and Scheffler, who live in the Dallas area, flew to Pinehurst together this week, and DeChambeau, the PGA runner-up, asked Scheffler why he’s doing so well.
“I looked at him and I was like, ‘Man, you’re playing unbelievable golf. What are you doing?'” DeChambeau said. “He said, ‘I’m just playing good golf. I don’t know. That’s how it is.'”
We should all be lucky enough to have “something like that.”
McIlroy shakes his head at Scheffler’s ability to maintain his greatness with so much interference swirling around him.
Being ranked number one in the world gives you automatic right to challenge, but for many players this position seems to be an uncomfortable one as it means you are being chased.
Scheffler and his wife Meredith welcomed their first child, Bennett, into the world last month.
And then, of course, there was the over-zealous Gillis.
“He’s had a lot going on in his life,” McIlroy said. “It’s not like there haven’t been challenges along the way and things have just been a little bit different for him. The word I would use to describe it is ‘relentless.'”
“Every time he comes on he looks like the guy to beat, and rightly so. He always looks like the favourite. He’s arguably the best player in the world at the moment. It’s our job to get to his level.”
Xander Schauffele, who won the PGA Championship last month, echoed the sentiments of McIlroy, DeChambeau, Rahm and Hovland, all of whom are chasing Scheffler’s greatness in the same way other top players are chasing Woods.
“Every week he plays, it seems like he’s extending his lead,” Schauffele said, “and somehow that makes it an even higher mountain to climb for all of us.”
