Scottie Scheffler cannot be stopped. You can only hope to contain him.
Scheffler entered this week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open looking for his third consecutive win. He captured both the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players Championship in his last two starts.
During the latter, Scheffler suffered a minor neck injury and battled through the pain. You certainly wouldn’t know it by the way he continues to dominate golf courses.
He posted an opening round 5-under 65 Thursday, trailing Taylor Moore by one shot for the lead.
Afterwards, he addressed the neck injury and the subsequent rehab.
“Yeah, neck’s feeling better, body feels good… The off week was good for me to get some rest, get some rehab. I took a couple more days off than I typically would last week, so it was some good recovery time,” Scheffler said.
Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images
Indeed, he gave his fellow Tour players a break and took last week off at the Valspar Championship.
Scheffler struggled a bit out of the gates Thursday, particularly with his approach shots having missed the first three greens. But that did not keep the World No. 1 from turning in a clean scorecard.
“I had a solid round. Kept the card clean, bogey free is always nice, especially around a golf course like this. It’s nice to be able to keep the card clean.”
Scheffler had a couple of momentum-building up-and-downs on his front nine (started on 10). After making the turn, he was back in the zone golf fans have been watching for essentially two years.
He birdied three of his first five holes on his back nine to close at 5-under.
After Thursday’s performance, Scheffler went from a heavy favorite entering the tournament to something ridiculous. You have to lay -120 if you pick him to win now. That’s unheard of after just one round, especially for someone who is not even in the lead.
But that’s how dominant Scheffler is right now.
Yet, he is keeping a level-headed approach.
“I try to stay patient out there. At the beginning of the week I’m not looking toward Sunday, I’m just focused on today,” said Scheffler.
The big Texan will be part of the afternoon wave Friday as he makes a push for more history.
Kendall Capps is the Senior Editor of SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social media platforms.