Scottie Scheffler returns as defending champ

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C.– Scottie Scheffler bears in thoughts being invested after profitable the 2024 Masters and flying in behind common for the RBCHeritage But the globeNo 1 had not been additionally weary to cease him from heading house with another prize.

“That was a week in which I didn’t really make very many mistakes. I think that was the difference maker there,” he claimed. “I didn’t really have very many bogeys, if I remember right. Just a shank in the first round.  I think I doubled that hole and my only other bogey was the 18th hole on the Monday, so on the whole, a mistake-free week other than the shank.”

Scheffler’s triumph, which splashed proper into Monday early morning due to unsafe local weather situation all through the final spherical, famous his 4th Tour title in 5 beginnings.

“The feeling you get from winning a tournament is a pretty special feeling,” he claimed on Tuesday all through his pre-tournament interview upfront of his most present title safety. “For me, I wish it lasted longer than it did. It doesn’t really last very long.”

After making profitable look routine in 2014, when he received 7 instances all through the routine interval along with Olympic Gold and the Hero World Challenge, a casual event, the 28-year-old Texan nonetheless is searching for his very first triumph this era. During his Masters title safety just lately, Scheffler was prowling at 5-under heading proper into the weekend break and a hazard to win his third Green Jacket in 4 years, but he was embeded impartial on Saturday (72) and confirmed up a bit bit transient, ending up 4th after a final-round 69. Scheffler claimed having enjoyable in a big continually is draining pipes but he’s not as drained as a yr in the past when he flew house after his media commitments on the Masters and commemorated late within the night at a Dallas dive bar previous to flying again for the Heritage on the eve of the competitors.

“It takes a little bit out of you, but the adrenaline you get from actually winning the tournament is a lot different than getting close,” he described.

To present the excellence, Scheffler talked about simply how he performed the 18 ^th opening at Augusta National on Sunday after blasting his tee shot within the fairway. At the second, he was 2 strokes behind Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy and mathematically nonetheless lively– almost certainly requiring to gap his 2nd shot.

“I’m thinking to myself, I’m going at this pin. I’m going to try to hole this, and then (Rose) makes it, and you’re like, well, tournament’s over. I lost. Didn’t win, lost, whatever,” Scheffler claimed of Rose’s birdie putt at 18 to pay money for the membership lead at 11 beneath. “I used to be taking a look at Teddy, and I’m like, ‘All right, Teddy, I guess I’m going to goal on the center of the inexperienced now.’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, aim at the middle of the green. Let’s get out of right here.’

“If Rosie misses that putt and I hole it, huge adrenaline rush, and that takes something out of you. Kind of like the adrenaline rush you get from getting arrested. It takes something out of you.”

Scheffler claimed his mind-set was the best it had truly been all interval but his chauffeur allowed him down, which restricted his potentialities to be hostile in his technique online game. Scheffler actually didn’t outline what spherical he was describing, but he saved in thoughts that an individual night he knowledgeable his different half, Meredith, that when he went for the middle of the green, his spherical typically tended to divert applicable or left– anyplace but on the goal.

He claimed he fought as tough as he can but yielded that his hand damage had truly taken much more of a toll on his prep work than he anticipated.

“It felt like starting over,” claimed Scheffler, that defined it as taking part in “catch up” after lacking out on 2 beginnings and never making his interval launching up till the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in very earlyFebruary “I haven’t had my best stuff this year, but I feel like I’m learning a lot. Each week I feel like I’m improving and continuing to learn…I feel like each day I come to the range, I’m getting a little bit better. Things are starting to feel more the way they should.”

On Tuesday, Scheffler wore his tartan coat that mosts prone to the Heritage champ and placed on a set of ear plugs for the Cannon Drive, part of the opening occasion that began with a bang as Scheffler drove the very first tee shot of the week proper into Calibogue Sound.

“That was unique,” Scheffler claimed. “I was definitely glad just to be able to make contact with the ball and not embarrass myself out there.”