The tricky little par-3 15th at Memorial Park measured only 121 yards on Saturday, but it exacted a vengeance on numerous players at the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
One of them happened to be Scottie Scheffler, the number-one ranked player in the world.
Scheffler hit a beautiful-looking wedge, and unsurprisingly, it was heading straight for the flagstick. But his tee shot took one bounce, spun back, and trickled all the way down into the creek that trickles in front of the green about six feet below the putting surface.
Consequently, Scheffler’s mouth dropped in disbelief. He could not accept that his ball ended up where it did.
“I didn’t expect it to spin back, I didn’t expect it to spin back off the green, and I didn’t expect it to be in the water,” Scheffler said.
“Especially the way the crowd was, they got really excited, so I assume it got pretty close to the hole.”
Instead of having a look at birdie, Scheffler walked away with a double-bogey.
“It’s a horrendous break really. There’s really just nothing else. I hit a great shot, and the ball goes into the water. It’s not great, but it happens. It’s part of the game,” Scheffler added.
“So I could really kind of walk up there knowing that I hit a good shot and I just did my best to get it up and down. I failed to do so, the pin was sitting in a weird spot there. Hit a good putt that didn’t go in, but overall I can’t get too upset, I hit a really good shot. I always talk about my process, and that’s a shot there where I did exactly what I wanted to do, and I just got unlucky. As long as my process is good, then I’m in a good spot.”
A three-shot swing late in the day on Saturday would likely rattle any other player.
But not Scheffler. He is too good and too mentally tough, and he does not let his rare mistakes affect him.
As such, on the next hole—the par-5 16th—Scheffler hit a perfect 4-iron into the peninsula green and faced a 20-footer for an eagle. He barely missed but tapped in for birdie.
“I’m proud of how I bounced back there,” Scheffler said.
“I hit a really great shot into 16. That’s one that may be understated on the scorecard or on the coverage. That was a really hard shot that I had.”
He was not done.
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At 17, a 398-yard par-4 with water all down the right-hand side, Scheffler found the fairway and then painted the flagstick with his approach. His second shot landed only four feet from the pin, and in the blink of an eye, he wiped away his double bogey with another birdie.
Scheffler, who has won his last two events during his previous two starts, will enter the final round tied atop the leaderboard.
Scheffler, David Skinns, Stephan Jaeger, Alejandro Totsi, and Thomas Detry are all 9-under through 54 holes. But Scheffler—because he finished his round earlier than the others—will join Skinns and Jaeger in the final pairing.
“Winning the last two doesn’t help me do anything [on Sunday],” Scheffler said.
“We’re still tied for the lead… but yeah, stick to my process. I think it’s going to be another pretty challenging day out there with high winds. Stick to my process and control what I can control out there.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
