Scottie Scheffler

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Scottie Scheffler already has had success this year on some of the game's most historic grounds. His win at Augusta National was ...

He had several opportunities to go even lower, bouncing his approach shot on 16 off of the flagstick and missing a handful of makeable birdie putts. Though the Masters was the most recent of his four wins this year, he does have a pair of runners-up, at the Charles Schwab Challenge and U.S. Open, since. Scheffler said he fought his swing on the front nine Friday, making one birdie and one bogey. Jordan Spieth was going for the third leg of the Grand Slam, and Scheffler, who’d just completed his first year at the University of Texas, was among the interested observers. When asked about the Old Course in advance of his first trip there as a pro in 2000, Tiger Woods once replied, “Any course suits my game when I’m playing well.” He went on to win by eight. He said at last week’s Genesis Scottish Open that links golf comes naturally, and he’s confirmed that statement through two rounds. It holds a unique place in the game as the Home of Golf, but its advanced age also presents a unique challenge. Lema didn’t get to St. Andrews until midday Monday of tournament week. Some of that comes from his childhood at Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas, where instructor Randy Smith emphasized shotmaking over launch-monitor readings. Its rolling terrain and oversized greens are a couple of the reasons Jack Nicklaus once called it golf’s toughest course to learn and said there was nowhere else “remotely like it.” “I think yesterday I played pretty fantastic to shoot 4 under,” Scheffler said. ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Scottie Scheffler already has had success this year on some of the game’s most historic grounds.