Rex Hoggard left ‘surprised’ by what he heard Scottie Scheffler say just before The Open Championship starts

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Scottie Scheffler will have high hopes of winning The Open Championship at Royal Portrush next week.

Scheffler is halfway to completing the career Grand Slam, and he needs to win The Open and The US Open to climb that particular mountain.

On Wednesday, Scheffler admitted that he loves the challenge presented by links golf at The Open and indeed, at The Scottish Open this week.

The Texan has been far and away the best player in the world this season.

Scheffler’s consistency is truly remarkable – he has only finished outside the top-10 three times in the 14 events he has played this season.

Scheffler enjoyed a two-week break leading up to The Scottish Open, and now he is in prime tournament mode as he hunts down a couple of wins on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Rex Hoggard ‘surprised’ by what Scottie Scheffler said before The Open Championship

Scheffler addressed the media ahead of The Scottish Open on Wednesday.

And the American opened up on his love of links golf.

Rex Hoggard was speaking on The Golf Channel’s Rex and Lav Podcast, and highlighted how the world number one might actually be outside his comfort zone when playing links golf.

He said: “I think his level of ball striking and brand of ball striking travels pretty well, Watson being a perfect example on that front.

“As long as he can learn how to flight the ball, I think that conversation about how the ball comes off the turf differently here compared to back home in Texas or the United States. As long as you understand that and start to get a feel to it.

“I watched him hit balls and he hit a lot of balls, and it was all the normal stuff. Studying his grip like he was hitting the ball for the first time, hitting rockets. It was signature Scottie.

“He is the prohibitive favourite. Not just this week but next week, for all the reasons that we know, the ball striking, the ability to compartmentalise when he gets down the stretch, the ability to hit the right shots coming down the stretch. He has done it time and time again.

“And I was a little surprised to hear him say that he loves this style of golf, that he loves bringing less scientist and more artist. That is what links golf demands out of you. That you are not always going to be able to sit and play swing. Sometimes you have to play the game, with the conditions and the lie and what the turf is giving you at that moment.

“I will say as a caveat, instead of just giving him the trophy this week and the Claret Jug next week, the one thing that does give me pause and this isn’t necessarily just Scottie, but it hammers home the point.
He loves the constants in his life. All those things that I mentioned, the ball striking, the knowing I can do this coming down the stretch, the knowing I have been here before.

“What he doesn’t like is the variables. He doesn’t like the outside influences that sometimes impact the game and they almost always impact the game in these two weeks, where you get a wind gust, you get the bad side of the draw or a bad bounce off the turf. You end up in a pot bunker that under normal circumstances would be fine but it leads to making a double bogey or worse.

“All of the things we love about links golf, I think that can kind of get under his skin. He has played well. Last year he finished in the top 10 of The Open and the Scottish Open but it’s those variables that add an element of uncertainty when it comes to Scottie.“

Scottie Scheffler’s Open record

Scheffler has performed consistently well at The Open, unsurprisingly so.

Here is his career record at The Open:

Obviously Scheffler will want to chalk up a win as soon as he possibly can in the Open Championship.

His ball-striking should help him win the Claret Jug at some point in his career.

He is one of the most creative and imaginative ball-strikers in the game of golf, so Hoggard’s take that he might be outside of his comfort zone was a bizarre one, in my opinion.