Scottie Scheffler Breaks Early-Round Slump With Dominant Start at Travelers Championship

While Scottie Scheffler’s game has been nearly flawless for years, he entered last week’s U.S. Open concerned about a recurring issue: a tendency to start tournaments slowly. By his exacting standards, he has spent much of the season playing catch-up, noting a lack of 36-hole and 54-hole leads.

That trend was swiftly corrected. Just five days later, Scheffler seized the 36-hole lead at the Travelers Championship. After an opening 64, he surged on Friday with a brilliant 10-under 60, recording 11 birdies against a lone bogey to set a two-round record of 16 under par.

His performance puts him two strokes ahead of Viktor Hovland, who posted an impressive 9-under 61.

The numbers support Scheffler’s self-assessment. While he ranks in the top three for scoring averages in the second, third, and final rounds this year, he has struggled in opening rounds, ranking 57th. This week, he outperformed those averages on both Thursday and Friday.

Reflecting on his dominant performance, Scheffler remained humble, attributing the difference between a good round and a great one simply to the roll of the putts.

“Some days they’re kind of hanging on the edge and not quite going in, and then other days they’re finding the bottom of the cup,” he explained. “Today was a day where most of them were finding the bottom.”

Scheffler came tantalizingly close to becoming only the second player in Tour history to break 60 twice. However, he admitted that his memory of his previous 59 at TPC Boston in 2020 is hazy.

“I wish my golf memory was a little better,” he joked. “I remember the end of that round—the birdie putt I made on 18—but outside of that, I don’t really remember a whole lot.”

He also lightheartedly noted that a 59 at the Travelers wouldn’t have been a course record regardless, given Jim Furyk’s historic 58. “Jim kind of takes away a little bit of the special 59 when you are still losing,” he said.

Discussing his mental approach, Scheffler referenced a common golf adage about the need to be either “really smart or really dumb.” He suggested that his lack of a long-term memory helps him move past mistakes and stay focused on the present. While he occasionally reviews old swing footage to rediscover specific “feels,” he prefers to live in the moment.

In doing so, Scheffler effectively dismantled the common golf cliché that it is difficult to follow a spectacular round with another strong performance.

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