LET me explain. Our coverline supporting the celebratory photo of Scottie Scheffler, moments after winning the Open Championship, then the headline to go with the tournament wrap, were in no way meant to demean his achievements or his exceptional golf.
Scheffler was all class in the way he navigated his way around Royal Portrush for four days, where he seized the lead on Friday afternoon and never really looked like giving it up.
I’m all in on Scottie, I love seeing the way he goes about it, however it took a little convincing for the boss, that being our publisher Sam, to agree to putting him on the cover.
“Great player, but is he a little bit boring,” was Sam’s question, and it’s a view shared by many of my friends and golfing colleagues.
Is he a ‘needle mover’ at least outside of golf, in the way Tiger and Greg Norman, Jack, Arnold and some of the other great champions of the past transcended the game of golf and became sporting icons? Probably not, at least not yet.
And I get it. Rarely does Scottie display emotion on the course, and while the manner of his victories, where his control of his ball and of his game in general is often better than the rest, no doubt he would be classed as methodical, rather than swashbuckling.
Bryson, Rory, Rahm, they go after it in a different way. McIlroy’s win at the Masters was incredible theatre, Scottie’s victories at the PGA, where he won by six, and now at the Open, somewhat more ho-hum. There is seemingly an inevitability about the way he grinds his opponents into the ground and confirms his victories. Don’t let him get into the lead, because there is a big chance you won’t be able to run him down.
Before the tournament, I’m sure he put most of the media pack to sleep with his press conference, explaining that he celebrates wins for two minutes, then tries to decide what he wants for dinner. He does express his love for the game and for competing at the highest level, however he is quick to point out he is about more than just golf and the scores he posts.
Wherever he goes, they say he is understated for a man who sits on top of the golfing world, is accumulating millions of dollars and likely needs a bigger house to fit all the trophies he has won of late. Rumour has it he didn’t even upgrade the pick-up truck – Ute to us – he drove in college until well into his professional career. He could have bought a whole dealership, let alone a new car.
However, while we weren’t sure any existed, we did manage to find a photo to post on the cover where Scottie showed some excitement, but you had to be quick, the pose and display of emotion only lasted seconds.
But all that said, I’m firmly in the camp of ‘brilliant’. His performances and results certainly can’t be questioned.
He now has four major titles to his credit, has closed the deal 10 times in a row when taking a 54-hole lead into the final round and has 17 PGA TOUR victories on his resume, to go along with an Olympic gold medal.
The way Scheffler dismantled the field at Portrush, keeping them at bay over the last two days, was beyond impressive. On the last five-six holes, when the pressure was at its greatest, he hit the ball in the fairway, onto the green, with no fuss and no stress. One suspects such was the quality of his shot making, if he needed two-three more birdies to win, he likely would have made them.
I was never good enough to experience it, but they say major championship golf is hard. Scottie doesn’t make it look that way.
The Open Championship was his fourth major, he now has three of the ‘big four’ and the way he is trending who is betting against him to complete the slam at the US Open next year?
But, the sceptics will say, we’ve read this book before. A golfer bursts onto the scene, wins a bunch, has the world wondering when it is going to stop, and it does, rather quickly.
Go back a little to Jordan Speith, he won 11 times in his first four years as a pro, three majors, looked like he was the one to sit alongside Jack and Tiger. But it didn’t happen and it’s not looking likely anytime soon.
Justin Thomas has won 16 tournaments in total, two majors, and while he hasn’t quite fallen as far off the perch as Speith, he is well behind the pace these days at golf’s biggest events.
And I’ll go back for those of my vintage or maybe older, to a time when David Duval challenged Tiger, won 13 times in just five years, and in a manner not dissimilar to Scheffler, with a his swing that was hardly text book and he rarely got too excited as he was taking down his opponents.
Shane Lowry contends that if Scottie swung the club like our Scotty, as in Adam, the predictions for greater and continued success and the widespread adulation would be different. Maybe so, but does his unorthodox swing alone give us all hope?
I’m not sure I’ve totally turned Sam around, but he loved the cover. Stacey our designer did a great job pulling it together.
I say brilliant. What about you?
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