After frustrating U.S. Open, Scottie Scheffler to re-consider future plans, 2025 schedule

Scottie Scheffler couldn’t make a putt at the 124th U.S. Open, which helps explain why he only had four birdies in four rounds.

Scheffler, who finished on Tour on Sunday, said it had been a “frustrating” week, adding that it had been “long.” Indeed, Scheffler was fresh off a win at the Memorial and arrived at Pinehurst No. 2 course looking to win his fifth of the 2024 season. But the Jack Nicklaus course was so difficult that many players compared it to a major championship.

That level of difficulty puts a strain on not only the best golfers in the world, but also on those competing in the U.S. Open, which may have Scheffler reconsidering whether to play in the weeks leading up to future majors.

“I think a lot depends on how you play the week before on the golf course, but I don’t think the condition of the golf course last week was the best preparation for me going into another difficult tournament,” Scheffler said Sunday.

“At the Memorial I shot five under in the first round, which would have been the easiest day, but then I was three under after that. It’s pretty close to the U.S. Open and I feel like I might have been a little better prepared this week if I’d been at home, especially considering I’ve played a lot of good golf throughout the season and been in contention for the championship for the last few weeks.”

Of course, Scheffler has had a lot going on off the golf course in recent months: His arrest at the PGA Championship quickly made national and internet news, and he was incarcerated in a Louisville, Kentucky, prison just nine days after Scheffler and his wife, Meredith, welcomed a baby boy to the world on May 8.

He then played in the Charles Schwab Challenge, but a stunning tragedy occurred midway through the tournament, after which Scheffler withdrew from the RBC Canadian Open and his next tournament was the Memorial.

“I certainly won’t miss Jack’s tournaments,” Scheffler added.

“This tournament is one I love to play in. It’s an honor to win this tournament.”

Prior to this season, Nicklaus would hold the Memorial Tournament the first weekend in June, with the first practice round coinciding with Memorial Day.

The PGA Tour postponed its tournaments by a week this year, wanting to give golf fans three consecutive weeks of top-level golf. After the Memorial, the world’s best players head straight to Pinehurst No. 2, and the following week the PGA Tour’s top players head to the Travelers Championship, the season’s final signature event. Nicklaus would like his tournaments to return to their previous schedule, and Scheffler surely feels the same way.

“I know it’s going to be as tough a week as this one is, so in terms of preparation I think it might be better not to play the week before,” Scheffler added after Saturday’s round.

Photo: David Cannon/Getty Images

“Going into a major tournament, especially one that I know is going to be really difficult, it might be best for me not to play the week before.”

Scheffler echoed similar sentiments after Sunday’s round.

“Maybe I wasn’t the best prepared this week, but I knew my schedule at the beginning of the year and it was set in stone,” Scheffler said.

“That’s always been my intention. Going forward, I think I’ll do things a little differently in the weeks leading up to a major, especially when I know the U.S. Open set-up is going to be tough.”

Maybe the PGA Tour will move the Memorial back to its traditional date just after Memorial Day next season. But maybe they won’t. Either way, it looks like Scheffler will be taking a week off before a major tournament from 2025 onwards, especially before the U.S. Open.

Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation Playing Through. Follow For more golf articles, follow us on Twitter Jack Mirko In the same way.