Scottie Scheffler Turns To YouTube In Bid To Tame Hoylake

One of the game's curiosities is that Scottie Scheffler is still only 27 which makes him younger than Matt Fitzpatrick, while Jordan Spieth, who will be 30 in nine days, looks relatively ancient.

Scheffler’s first taste of links golf came just two years ago when he was 12th at the Scottish Open where his second competitive round on seaside turf was an eight-under 63. A week later he finished 8th at The Open at Royal St George’s where he and Jon Rahm were paired together on the Sunday in the third last group out.

It's little wonder, then, that he's already built an affinity to golf in its oldest form.

“I really like it, you can be extremely creative. Basically around this course if you just avoid the bunkers you can do whatever you want, but any time you're in a bunker, I mean, it's pretty much a stroke penalty they way the bunkers are shaped this week.

"I play Renaissance each year and it's very fun, and then we get to the Open and then I start getting really used to links golf and I just want to play a lot more of it, and I get a little sad that I've got to be done with it until next July,” explains the World No. 1.

The last time The Open was at Royal Liverpool in 2014 he was preparing himself for four years at the University of Texas; as for the 2006 Open, Scheffler’s knowledge of Tiger Woods’ iconic win has come via YouTube.

“I don't really remember watching it. A lot of my Tiger memories are all on YouTube. I really do get a lot of value out of watching that kind of stuff and I did watch his win here on YouTube. It's a pretty valuable tool, you get to watch so much cool stuff. Most of my young memories of Tiger are just watching him win a lot and seeing him make all the putts, whether it was here at The Open or the putt at Torrey always stands out.”

This week is Scheffler’s first look at Royal Liverpool but he has revisited the ’06 victory online ahead of his visit to the North West to get a few pointers.

“Yeah, just to see the course. I had never seen this course before. I didn't really know anything about it, other than the fact that it was really firm and he only hit one driver for the entire week. Anytime I'm coming to a new course, I try to learn something about it before I get there versus just coming in blind. It really is a valuable tool for me.”

Now he’s seen it in the flesh there is one very clear takeaway.

“Anytime my ball is going towards a bunker I'm very nervous. I'm just going to try and avoid the bunkers at all costs. At St George's a lot of the bunkers had a tiny bit of an upslope before you got to the wall face, and here it seems like the faces of every bunker is almost a downslope going towards it.

“I don't think that's something I particularly like in a golf course. I think it doesn't reward the good shots as much. If you're closer to the green you end up closer to the lip, and if you get a worse shot and barely get into the bunker you actually have a play. So I would prefer if there was a little bit of slope there, but that's what's so special about the Majors. 

“I wouldn't say at home that I chip very much with a pitching wedge or 9-iron just because when you're in the States you're much more dictated by the lie and the grain. Over here every lie is pretty scratchy and you just have a lot of options. Today I chipped a lot with my pitching wedge and 9-iron and that's something that I'm just not able to practise, but it feels pretty natural.”

As for the new 17th, Little Eye, the 136-yard par 3 which has already caught plenty of headlines this week, then his outlook is equally as clear. 

“There is not really a high-percentage play. You just have to hit a really good shot, and if you don't, I would say missing it left of the green is a little bit better than right. That bunker is pretty treacherous on the right. But as far as that hole goes I'm just going to try and hit a really good shot, and that's pretty much all you can do.”

Scheffler’s rise has been so quick that there were an assortment of questions, all around a similar subject of whether a Major-free year would be a disappointment – "A year without winning a Major would be pretty similar to the other 25 years of my life" – before things turned to the other popular topic: his putting.

The general narrative is that if he putts well, he wins such is the stellar nature of the rest of his game. Of the six main Strokes Gained categories the 27-year-old leads in four of them. In the putting list he ranks 134th.

So does he see his putting the same way as it’s portrayed in the media?

“Definitely not. I think that most of what has to happen is something has to be created into a story, and for a while it didn't really seem like there was much of a story behind the way I play golf. I think I was viewed as probably a touch boring and didn't really show much emotion and whatever else you could think of.

“But I think I had back-to-back tournaments that I could have won where I putted poorly, and all of a sudden it became this thing where like I'll watch highlights of my round, and even the announcers, any time you step over the putt it's like, 'Well, this is the part of the game he struggles with'. And, if you say it every time and you guys see me miss a 12-footer it's like, 'Oh, there it is. He's struggling again'.”

On the contrary Scheffler remains confident over his putting, whether that’s down to some pre-Major positive self-talk or, more ominously, he’s managed to find something in his stroke. 

“The things that I'm working on right now I feel very excited about. I'm hitting a lot of good putts. Pretty soon a lot of those good putts will start falling in the middle of the hole instead of dodging around the side of it. I have a lot of faith in what I'm working on right now, and I'm hoping to see some results soon.”

Scheffler is off at 9.47am on Thursday alongside Tommy Fleetwood and Adam Scott.