SCOTTSDALE — At times on Thursday and Friday, the wind howled at TPC Scottsdale, making an already hard golf course even harder. This is clearest at the 16th hole inside the Coliseum, where balls were blown so hard to the right on Thursday that fans in the first row of the grandstands were trying to catch them.
It didn’t really stop on Friday, at least not in the first part of the second round, which started a little after 9 a.m. MT. Scottie Scheffler, who finished his first round with a score of 68 on Friday morning and then went straight to the 10th tee to start his second round, learned this the hard way at the famous par 3 hole.
Scheffler already had one under for his round when he hit a really good shot at No. 16. He kept his hands up through the end to emphasise a cut, which was helped by a wind from left to right. His ball landed about 20 feet to the left of the hole, spun hard back towards the hole, and seemed to get close enough to tap in.
Then it kept going, and going, and going, and going, and going, and going. Watch Scheffler’s tee shot go from an easy birdie to off the green in one of the most painful videos you’ll see this season. This caused a huge cheer that turned into a few boos. This sentence would only make sense on the 16th.
Just plain wrong. On Friday, the only thing more offensive than that guy pole dancing with the flag stick in a speedo was what happened at the 16th.
Scheffler didn’t think it was true.
He said afterward, “It landed four paces to the left of the pin and was cutting.” “On the left side of the hole, it should have been about six feet. In the end, it was about 20 feet from the green. It was strange. Hard break.”
The second best player in the world also couldn’t believe the boos.
“My ball went into the green in a weird way, so I knew something was going on up there,” said Scheffler. “Then the flags began to flap. Then, all of a sudden, my ball started moving, and people started booing me, which I didn’t like too much. It was a pretty good chance that people would boo, but that’s life.”
It didn’t matter in the end because Scheffler easily saved a par and then got back to work. He then made four straight birdies, then played his last seven holes in two under to finish with a score of 64, which was seven under. The defending champion is still alone at the top with a score of 10 under.
It would have been 11 if that huge wind hadn’t come up.
