The 2025 U.S. Open has not gone according to plan for Scottie Scheffler. The world’s top-ranked player, who came in as the heavy favorite to win his second straight major championship, sits firmly inside the cut line but a ways off contention through 36 holes.
Though Scheffler has won three of his last four starts, including the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open is taking a toll on him for the second straight year.
After shooting 73 to start his week, Scheffler struggled to make a significant move up the leaderboard on Friday, grinding his way to a 71. He enters the weekend at 4 over, solidly inside the cut line but well off the lead.
Scheffler’s 71 was fairly impressive given he was fighting his swing throughout his round, as the left miss off the tee that bothered him some to start the season has returned at the worst possible time.
Scheffler is known for his stoic nature on the golf course, but his frustrations were apparent throughout Friday. After yanking another drive left on the 3rd and visiting the church pew bunkers for the third time in two days, he let out what’s the closest thing you’ll ever see to a tirade from the world No. 1, dropping a couple “gosh dang its” and (gently) slamming his driver into the ground.
On the Scheffler scale, that’s quite an outburst. After he signed his card and ate some lunch, Scheffler was back out on the practice area at Oakmont Country Club in the afternoon trying to work out his game. Television cameras captured him having an animated and frustrated conversation with coach Randy Smith, which showed just how much his inconsistencies were bothering him.
No one in golf does the disheveled hat look quite like Scheffler when he’s frustrated, and he had it extra tilted while letting Smith know that he was feeling one thing but seeing the ball do something completely different.
There’s something almost comforting about seeing Scheffler in a space that every golfer knows incredibly well. He can often look like a machine, making the game look so easy with his consistency, but even the best player in the world sometimes gets lost with his swing.
The big difference is that Scheffler being lost means he’s only around the top 30 at the U.S. Open instead of on the first page of the leaderboard.