Why Scottie Scheffler’s Slow Start at the U.S. Open Should Still Have Everyone Looking Over Their Shoulders

Scottie Scheffler can complete the career grand slam with a win at Shinnecock this week. | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

Scottie Scheffler is chasing history this week at the U.S. Open, as a win at Shinnecock would make him just the seventh player in history to complete the grand slam. But if he’s going to get that done, he’s going to have to play a lot better than he did in Thursday’s first round.

Scheffler’s up-and-down day finished with a small fist pump after making a tricky sand-save par putt on the 18th that gave him a two-over par 72 and has him just four shots back of the current leaders. The No. 1 player in the world had three bogeys, a double bogey and four birdies on his card.

That old adage that you hear about not being able to win a major on the first day, but being able to lose one? Yeah, that best sums up Scheffler’s round, because things could have gone really badly for him. Instead, he’s within striking distance and can easily climb up the leaderboard on Friday if he just avoids a few mistakes that he made on Thursday.

What went wrong for Scheffler in the first round

To put things simply, Scheffler couldn’t get out of his own way on a windy day at Shinnecock. When he hit bad drives, the course made him pay the price. When he hit good drives, his iron game let him down. That all put a lot of pressure on his short game, and at a U.S. Open, that’s going to lead to bogeys. And even a double bogey.

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Scheffler came out the gates with three straight pars to start his round. You can’t argue with pars at any U.S. Open, but especially at Shinnecock, where the winning score in two of the last four U.S. Opens that it has hosted has been even-par or worse.

But then things got rough for the No. 1 player in the world as he bogeyed the par-4 fourth after his tee shot tailed off to the right and ended up in the long fescue.

Scheffler then quickly got that shot back with a birdie on the par-5 fifth hole—thanks to an absolutely filthy chip shot—and appeared to be ready to make a move up the leaderboard.

A scrambling machine.

Scottie puts a huge amount of spin on it from way below the level of the green. pic.twitter.com/bnIr6KCQW8

— U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 18, 2026

That didn’t happen, however, as he bogeyed the par-4 sixth hole after missing the green from the middle of the fairway. Things would get even worse for Scheffler on the par-4 eighth hole when his tee shot once again sailed into the fescue on the right. He would go on to make a double-bogey six after needing three putts to finish the hole.

The stat that from the first round that should concern Scheffler the most is that he hit just nine of 18 greens in regulation. When you do that at a U.S. Open, you’re going to have to work really hard to survive.

What went right for Scheffler in the first round

Scheffler, like any golfer, will probably spend his afternoon and evening thinking about the bad shots that led to bogeys or worse. It’s just how a golfer’s mind works. The good news, however, is that he did have four birdies, including three on the back nine, which were able to save what could have been a disastrous opening round. His birdie on the 185-yard par-3 17th was not only huge for his scorecard, but also for his confidence moving forward.

While Scheffler’s two errant drives on the front nine led to three dropped shots, he was still able to hit 12 of 14 fairways on the day, which means his driver was pretty locked in. Hitting fairways at Shinneock is imperative, as we saw how penalizing the fescue rough that lines most the holes can be.

Scheffler’s putter was also working for most of the day, as he needed just 28 putts.

Why the rest of the field should be worried about Scheffler

Scheffler wasn’t at his best on Thursday but was still able to put together a round that has him just four shots back of the current leaders. The more he’s able to stick around, the more of a problem he becomes.

Nobody is going to go really low at Shinnecock. Sam Stevens had the best score of the early group, firing a two-under 68.

Rory McIlroy got it to three-under through 16 holes but then bogeyed both 17 and 18 to finish with a one-under 69.

Scheffler won’t be happy about the way he played during stretches of his opening round but he has to be pleased that he not only didn’t play himself out of the championship, but he’s still right near the top heading into Friday’s second round.

And that’s something that should strike fear in the rest of the field.

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