Scottie Scheffler insists he is unruffled by last week’s disappointing showing at the US Open as he prepares to return to action at the Travelers Championship.
The world number one was a strong favourite at Pinehurst last week after claiming his fifth victory of the season at the Memorial Tournament a fortnight ago.
But the 27-year-old finished 14 shots behind winner Bryson DeChambeau after carding his fifth successive over-par round.
The Masters champion said at a press conference: “Well, I didn’t really think about it very much when I was shooting under par, so I’m probably not going to think about it too much when I’m shooting over par.
“It’s just one of those deals, like when I was playing good and I was able to survive the harder golf courses.
“It’s just kind of (one of) those weird little stats. It’s not like I played that bad and shot over par.”
Scheffler did voice his frustration with the calendar last week, suggesting the scheduling of the Memorial Tournament – one of the PGA Tour’s eight ‘signature’ events – the week before the third major of the year was not ideal.
Since then it has been announced the Jack Nicklaus-hosted tournament will be moved a week earlier from 2025 to allow greater preparation time for the US Open.
The signature events concept of lucrative, limited-field tournaments is in its first year and was developed in response to the threat of rival Saudi-backed LIV Golf.
It's not like I played that bad and shot over par.— Scottie Scheffler
Scheffler has generally welcomed the series but expects further tweaks to be made to the format in due course.
He said: “As far as playing multiple weeks in a row, having the ability to play twosomes makes it a lot easier to get guys around the golf course, especially if we’re going to be asked to play numerous weeks in a row with these events.
“As far as the actual on-course product goes I think it’s great to have the best players together as often as you can on our Tour, and how do you make that happen is the biggest question to ask.
“I think as the year goes on into the off-season I think we’ll have a lot more of those discussions to sit back and look at.”
The Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut is the last of this year’s signature events.
Reports on the eve of the event have suggested there have been no significant developments in the Tour’s ongoing discussions with the Saudi Public Investment Fund over a potential coming together with LIV.
Scheffler said: “I don’t know if they’re going great or if they’re going poorly. Hopefully they will continue to progress but it’s out of my control, so I’m not too worried about it.”
Scheffler was this week confirmed as one of the United States team for this summer’s Olympics.
He said: “Representing your country is really special and to do it on the Olympic stage is going to be pretty surreal. I’m just excited to go there and experience the Olympics.”
