Scottie Schefflers reply to question over slow | Golf News

Scottie Scheffler had a prickly response when probed about his group’s slow tempo at the U.S. Open on Friday.

Despite a difficult spherical of 71, leaving him four-over-par, Scheffler is still in competition for his maiden U.S. Open title. He trails chief Sam Burns by seven strokes, with only three gamers managing to break par so far.

Viktor Hovland and J.J. Spaun are the opposite two under par, with Hovland one-under and Spaun two-under. The trio of Hovland, Scheffler, and Collin Morikawa took an eyebrow-raising 71 minutes to full just three holes during Friday’s play.

When questioned about the notably slow tempo after his spherical, Scheffler’s retort was terse: “Why do you think?”

After the reporter admitted uncertainty, Scheffler, a winner of three main titles, echoed: “I mean, I don’t know.”

Attempting to shed mild on the scenario, Scheffler remarked: “It felt long to me. Both the par-5s, we basically walked up on the group in front of us. When it’s up on No. 8 — you’ve got a drivable par-4 on 17. 8 is basically a drivable par-4, too.

“You guys are those watching. I’m just making an attempt to play. I’ve obtained too many issues different than the tempo it takes to get around this place.”

When asked if the creeping pace affected him, Scheffler simply stated: “No.

“Going into a golf course like this with this many players and this tough of a golf course, you know it’s going to take a while. If it was, like — if we’re playing threesomes at Travelers next week, the scores are obviously going to be a bit different.

“There’s not practically the space in between holes. Look at the ground we have to cowl on the market to stroll 18 holes. That’s a massive piece of property. It just takes time. It just takes time to hit that many golf photographs.”

Scheffler acknowledged the notorious difficulty of Oakmont, with its fast greens, narrow fairways, and thick rough, but remained optimistic about his chances in the U.S. Open. “Definitely not out of the event,” he declared.

“Today was, I feel with the best way I used to be hitting it, was simply a day I may have been going home and battled fairly exhausting to keep in there.

“I’m 4-over. We’ll see what the lead is aftertoday, but around this golf course I don’t think by any means I’m out of the tournament.”

When requested about what a main win at Oakmont would imply for his Ryder Cup teammate Sam Burns, Scheffler responded thoughtfully: “I mean, it’s a complicated question.

“I feel Sam is one of those guys, he is like me in a sense that he is a hyper-competitive individual. I feel you all the time dream of having a likelihood to win these tournaments, and he is put himself in place a few occasions at majors, and he is in place again.

“I’m sure going into the weekend he’s right where I would want to be on the leaderboard, so you know, to have a good chance, it should be a fun experience for him.”