Scottie Scheffler has explained one key difference between the difficulty of Oakmont Country Club and Augusta National.
Everyone knows that Augusta, the annual venue for the Masters Tournament, is one of the most difficult golf courses on the calendar.
Well, Oakmont in US Open conditions is expected to be even more testing for the world’s best golfers.
World number one Scheffler pointed out what will happen when players miss greens this week, which wouldn’t be so troubling at The Masters.
Scottie Scheffler says what’s ‘completely different’ about Oakmont vs Augusta
Scheffler compared the major championships to the Grand Slams in tennis by saying that each one provides a “different type of test.”
He went on to say that, at The Masters, players can somewhat get away with poor approaches by playing bump or flop shots around the green.
That’s not possible at Oakmont because the rough is so thick that all players can do is “pop the ball out” and go from there.
“Well, I kind of equate some of the major tests to… like the majors in tennis, you’re playing on a different surface. You’ve got grass, clay, and then the hard court, and it’s a different style of game. The US Open, compared to the Masters, is a completely different type of test.
“I think at the Masters, you have a lot more shot making when you get around the greens because it’s a lot of fairway, there’s pine straw, there’s not really the rough factor.
“Then, when you get here, it’s a lot of hacking out of the rough. You still have to be extremely precise, but it’s a bit more… when you talk about strength and power, I think that becomes more of a factor at these tournaments because when you hit it in the rough, you’ve got to muscle it out of there. It’s just a different type of test than you see at the Masters. Both of them are fantastic tests.
“This is probably the hardest golf course that we’ll play, maybe ever, and that’s pretty much all it is. It’s just a different type of test.
“When you miss the green at the Masters, the ball runs away, and it goes into these areas, and you can play a bump, you can play a flop. There are different options. Here, when you hit the ball over the green, you just get in some heavy rough, and it’s like, let me see how I can pop the ball out of this rough and somehow give myself a look. It’s just a different type of test.
“I don’t know if one of them is better than the other, but they’re just different, and here, the winning score I don’t think is going to be what the winning score was at the Masters. It’s just different.”
Where did Scottie Scheffler finish at the 2016 US Open at Oakmont?
Scheffler made his US Open debut at Oakmont in 2016 as an amateur, and he showed signs that he would develop into a world-class player.
He shot an impressive one-under-par 69 in the first round, which was only bettered by Lee Westwood (67), Dustin Johnson (67), and four other players.
Unfortunately, Scheffler performed more like an amateur than a serial winner on Friday as he carded an eight-over 78.
This put Scheffler at +7 for the tournament and meant he missed out on the weekend by just one stroke.
It would be an almighty shock if he were to suffer the same fate this week, with many expecting him to win comfortably.
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