Has Scottie Scheffler lost his intimidation factor?
Golf Channel's Paul McGinley and Brandel Chamblee discuss Scottie Scheffler entering the 154th Open Championship. Chamblee argues Scheffler is not in a class by himself after not having one 54-hole lead this year.
Video Transcript
He was front-footed and he w- he was- Yeah getting into the question and getting into the answer.
He wasn't kind of just giving soundbites.
I like to see that in players.
So we gotta have an edge in this game.
And why do you think he's so well-suited for baked-out Birkdale?
He's, he's the best player in the game b- by quite a ways in terms Even this year and he's off his game, he's still the best player in the game.
And you look at his statistics right through the bag, I mean, there's nobody comes close to him, even when he's not on his game.
The way he's played the last two years in particular.
Now, this is gonna be, more than anything, this is not particularly about driving the ball this week.
It's about iron play, it's about scrambling, and it's about mental agility, and he excels in all three of those.
There you go.
Okay.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, you talk about momentum a lot.
I do too.
Momentum within a round, but there's also momentum within a year.
He doesn't come in here with momentum.
He wouldn't say that.
And he's been off of his game, so he is reachable.
You know, he's got the odd miss to the right, he's got the odd miss with his irons.
He's no longer the dominant iron player.
Game's a lot easier to win when you're a dominant iron player in the game.
You got more 10, 15-footers, 12-footers than anybody else in the game.
You look at them all day.
You make three or four today, you make five or six tomorrow, all of a sudden you got a five, six, seven-shot lead.
He's not doing that.
He has- Could this, could this canvas, could this canvas put him into that creative mindset to be more of an artist and make him h- hit iron, better iron shots?
Well, I think he is an artist.
I think he's a tremendous artist.
I just think he's a little off of his game.
And I know you and I have had a debate about whether or not he's a great iron player or not, but I've watched him, as you have.
He can work the ball every single direction.
He can hit all of those nine windows, but he's off of his game this year.
He's just- He's 13th in iron play.
It's not m- Yeah, yeah.
He's- It's still world-class No, he's way off of his game compared to where it was the last three years.
He's a full shot strokes gain tee to green off of his game.
That's not a little bit.
That's a lot.
That is being a half a second slow.
I mean, he is way off his game, way off his pace.
Way off the high standards- So, so you- that he set of the previous years.
Yeah but still world-class compared to everybody else in this field.
World-class, no doubt about it, but he is not in a class by himself where he has been the last three years.
What'd you say?
You had a great- So- phrase early in the year- So- that he's still the man to- He's still the man to beat, but he's not the man that can't be beat, and that's the whole point of this.
Right.
There you go.
He has not had a 54-hole lead all year long on the PGA Tour.
He's had six times he's been second going into the final round.
Um- That's surprising.
But if you go back, you know, to last year, the year before that, the year before that, you go back to 2025, he had four 54-hole leads.
Closed them all.
He's been chasing all year long, not leading, not dominating.
And I'll tell you this, 2024, six times he had a 54-hole lead.
He wins five times.
You lose your ability to intimidate when you're chasing and making mistakes.
And underrated, I think, is just how intimidating the greatest players are when they're dominating.
That was Tiger Woods.
That was Jack Nicklaus.
That was Ben Hogan.
And I think there's an intimidation factor here that's been missing this year from Scottie Scheffler because he's looked more human this year than he's- I- looked in the three previous years m- my point, Donald, would be what's the baseline?
The fact that he was so brilliant the last two years, maybe the best we've ever seen, including Tiger, for two years in a row.
Yeah.
That's not a That's You can't consider that a base.
That's a high.
Now, he might've come off the boil a bit, but the base, he's still way above what w- what, what, what would be considered very good.
He's still excelling.
Well, maybe, maybe, uh- The problem is the comparison of the two previous years- Maybe is what makes the base so high.
May- maybe.
But you might've said that the baseline was 2024, and then you saw 2025.
I, you know, I just He was kept ticking right along.
As good- you know as good as he was.
But he is.
Look, he's the- He wasn't better than Tiger in '99 and 2000- When- or Tiger in '06 and '07.
Well, he wasn't because Tiger was a better putter.
I mean, but, but Yeah.
But when we make our picks tomorrow night, of course Scottie Scheffler's the favorite.
We should pick somebody besides Scottie Scheffler because he is the favorite.
Nobody's gonna say he's not, but he's just not the favorite to the degree he has been in the past.
I find it very hard to think that he can go through all four majors this year and not win one
