Golf is fickle, as Scottie Scheffler proved through the first two rounds of the 2024 U.S. Open.
The World No. 1 and pre-tournament betting favorite walked off the course around 1 p.m. ET on Friday after shooting a second-round 74, putting him at 5 over at Pinehurst No. 2 and in danger to miss the cut. Tied for 87th, he’s in a precarious position. Only the top 60 plus ties from the 156 who started the tournament will advance to the weekend in Pinehurst, North Carolina.
After his round, he didn’t sound too confident he’d be sticking around.
“I don’t think 5 over is going to get me into the weekend,” he said. “But I’m proud of how I fought today. I gave myself a good chance. Really, yesterday, I felt like I did a great job. Today I just couldn’t get the putts to fall. This golf course can be unpredictable at times, and maybe it got the better of me the last couple days. I’ll sit down and think about where we’re going the last few days and figure it out.”
It’s an unusual spot these days for Scheffler, who has won five times this season, including the Masters. He won a week ago at the Memorial for his 11th overall PGA Tour win but had a birdie-free round Friday, the first time he failed to post a birdie in a major in his career. He had two bogeys and a double on the par-5 fifth hole, which terrorized many golfers Friday.
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The Scottie-Xander-Rory group is having a rough go from the native area on 5. 😵💫 pic.twitter.com/eU7WUEUpkW
— U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 14, 2024
“I think that’s part of the mystery of the kind of sandy areas. You get down there and it’s kind of luck of the draw whether or not you have a shot,” he said of his fifth-hole adventures. “Preferably I would have loved to have hit like a little runner out of there, but I had a bush in my way to where I couldn’t play the runner that I would have hoped to. Really all you’re trying to do from there is get it up on to the green somewhere, and I felt like I took the best route I could think of at first, and just because it’s so unpredictable.”
At the time he completed his round, Data Golf had the projected cut at 4 over at 52 percent and 5 over at 41 percent. Smylie Kaufman of Golf Channel/NBC Sports commented during the telecast that he’d be surprised if the cut line climbed to 6 over, so it appears Scheffler’s 4-footer for par on the ninth hole (he started his round on No. 10) might have saved his chances to make the weekend, but only time will tell as the afternoon wave takes to the course.
Scheffler’s last missed cut was the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship, a span of 672 days ago.
