PINEHURST, N.C. — Superman had a tough time.
Scottie Scheffler, the world number one by a wide margin, is in danger of missing the cut at the 124th U.S. Open.
Scheffler entered this week’s Pinehurst No. 2 Golf Course having won five of his previous eight tournaments and coming off his worst performance of finishing eighth at last month’s PGA Championship.
He shot a 1-over-par 71 in the first round on Thursday before shooting a 4-over-par 74 in the second round on Friday to finish 5-over-par after 36 holes.
When Scheffler finished his round, he was two strokes shy of the cut line, or three over par. Of the 156 players in the field, the top 60 scores and any ties qualify for the cut line.
Scheffler was tied for 90th place at the end of the round.
If Scheffler’s five-over-par score isn’t inside the cut line at the end of the afternoon round, it will be his first time missing a tournament weekend since missing the cut at the FedEx St. Jude in August 2022.
That was before he had 38 qualifiers and seven wins.
Scheffler said he couldn’t do anything good in Thursday’s round after shooting a 1-over 71 in his opening round.
On Friday, he performed even worse, failing to score a single birdie.
This is the first time in Scheffler’s 18 major tournaments as a professional that he has failed to get at least one birdie in a round of a major tournament.
Scheffler had just two birdies through 36 holes, the same as Thursday, and also had three bogeys.
Starting at the 10th hole on Friday, Scheffler parred his first five holes before bogeying the par-3 15th and par-3 17th holes and then double-bogeying the par-5 fifth hole on the back nine.
Making it all even more incredible is the fact that Scheffler comes to Pinehurst after winning at the Memorial on Sunday, his fifth victory of the season.
But his preparations were somewhat abbreviated.
Scheffler arrived from Ohio on Monday afternoon and was chipping and putting, playing the back nine on Tuesday and the front nine on Wednesday.
Interestingly, Scheffler opted not to visit Pinehurst to familiarize himself before tournament week, as many top players do.
In fairness, he had a lot going for him: His wife, Meredith, was in the middle of her pregnancy and gave birth to their child in mid-May.
Scheffler also was arrested and detained at the Louisville PGA, but the charges were later dropped.
“It makes it a little bit difficult given some of the situations that are going on off the golf course,” Scheffler said when asked about the compartmentalization before the tournament.
Scheffler did not play at Pinehurst in 2014, the last time the U.S. Open was held on the No. 2 course.
“I think the golf course will be pretty tough this week, but it’ll be a fun test,” Scheffler said Tuesday. “I think the golf course is great. It’ll be very challenging.”
