Scottie Scheffler’s putter, which seemed to have entered into a clandestine affair with a black hole during The Open Championship, has apparently resurfaced for the 3M Open. Before this Minnesota detour, the world’s top player was wrestling with his short game like a man trying to solve a Rubik's Cube blindfolded – a lot of frantic movement, zero satisfying clicks. But here in the land of 10,000 lakes, a place where putting greens are probably less common than cornfields, the flatstick has been, against all odds, found.
You have to wonder if the local prairie grass has some kind of secret putting-enhancing pixie dust, or if simply escaping the soul-crushing pressure of a major has allowed Scheffler’s brain to stop screaming and start aiming. Whatever the cosmic alignment or the Minnesota humidity did to his synapses, the result was a scorecard with zero bogeys and six birdies. It was, by any sane person’s definition, a rather competent display of not only hitting the ball well, but also, you know, rolling it into the hole.
After previously conquering the treacherous Par-5s on holes 12 and 18 with approaches that screamed "eagle," Scheffler then glided across the greens like a figure skater who’d just discovered ice instead of concrete. His round was a welcome plot twist after the rather snooze-worthy narrative of the previous weekend’s Open.
With the FedEx Cup playoffs breathing down his neck, and Scheffler already locked in as the top seed, his current gig is less about survival and more about keeping his game from gathering dust like an old tractor. This tournament is, therefore, less a fiery trial and more a pleasant pit stop, a chance for the man to stay sharp so he doesn’t develop the golf equivalent of rust. Emiliano Grillo is nominally in the lead, but let’s be honest, that’s probably just a temporary placeholder until the American express train inevitably chugs into victory lane.