OAKMONT, Pa. — Sometimes, even Superman struggles.
Scottie Scheffler doesn’t wear a cape.
But the golf he’s played for the past two years has been otherworldly.
The gap between his No. 1 world ranking and the rest of the pack is reminiscent of the gaping advantage Tiger Woods built when he was dominating in his prime.
Scheffler won seven times last season, including the Masters and the Players Championship.
He entered this week’s U.S. Open at Oakmont having won three times in his previous four starts, including the PGA Championship and Memorial.
Understandably, he entered this week as such an overwhelming favorite to win that the gamblers’ chatter was about whether to bet on Scheffler or the rest of the 156-player field.
And yet, the surprise of this week is how human Scheffler has looked, which is to say he’s resembled an impostor of the man who’s been, with his head down and face without expression, coldly mowing down the rest of the PGA Tour.
Scheffler, despite not having his best stuff, grinded out a 1-over-par 71 in Friday’s second round to keep himself in contention, at 4-over par, to win his second major of the year, and the third leg of a career Grand Slam.
He spent much of the day hovering around the cut line, which was projected to be 5-over while he was playing.
“Overall, [I’m] definitely not out of the tournament,’’ Scheffler said. “[Friday], with the way I was hitting it, I could have been going home. And I battled pretty hard to stay in there. I’m 4-over. Around this golf course I don’t think by any means I’m out of the tournament.’’
Scheffler, who has uncharacteristically been fighting his driver with a case of the lefts this week, entered the week having made the cut in his previous 56 starts.
His last missed cut came on Aug. 14, 2022 at the St. Jude Classic.
He entered the week having played in 21 major championships as a pro and missed the cut only twice — in the 2019 U.S. Open and the 2022 PGA.
Scheffler’s 3-over-par 73 on Thursday was his worst opening-round score of his career in majors relative to par (Oakmont is a par-70).
His previous worst opening-round score was a 1-over-par 73 at the 2021 Masters.
At the conclusion of his round, Scheffler was tied for 36th.
He’s never come back from outside the top 30 at the end of the first or rounds to win a PGA Tour event.
Only three U.S. Open winners have come from outside the top-20 on the leaderboard at the end of the second round to win: Lou Graham, 1975 at Medinah (T-27 after 36 holes), Larry Nelson in 1983 at Oakmont CC (T-25 after 36) and Webb Simpson in 2012 at Olympic Club (T-29 after 36),.
“I feel like I battled really hard,’’ Scheffler said. “It’s challenging out there. I was not getting the ball in the correct spots and paying the price for it. I felt like me getting away with 1-over today wasn’t all that bad. It could have been a lot worse. I anticipated to hit it better.
“Mentally, this was as tough as I’ve battled for the whole day,’’ he went on. “There was a lot of stuff going on out there that was not going in my favor necessarily and I felt like Teddy [Scott, his caddie] and I did a great job of battling, especially coming down the stretch.’’