Royal Portrush might be the only thing that can stop Scottie Scheffler

Portrush, Northern Ireland – Scottie Scheffler stood in the middle of the 18th Fairway and looked towards green. While waiting for the group to end, behind the stands, a giant cloud sporting a frightening gray shade is looming. A hole earlier, Scheffler had been washed by sunlight and framed by a rainbow. Now the sun had gone and it seemed that more rain could happen.

It was this kind of day in Northern Ireland in the open championship.

“When we were turning off, according to the weather forecast that you looked at, it was going to tell you something different,” said Scheffler. “It was super sunny when we were on the practice, I am there in short sleeves, it is hot. Then, we arrive at the first hole, it is always sunny. Then suddenly, you look around and it is super dark and it starts to rain. You are like, my boy, I wonder how long it will last.”

By the pouring rain, the wind or the sun, Scheffler was imperturbable. He sorted out the first hole in the conditions – a warning sign of what was going to happen.

During the afternoon, the best player in the world did what he did several times: made his victory inevitable. In his second round around Portrush, Scheffler continued to lead the ground in the approach and continued to make more than 132 feet of putts, counting eight birdies and drawing what looked like a 64 easy to take the advance of 36 holes at 10 sous.

“I felt like I had hit a few more fairways than yesterday,” said Scheffler, declaring the evidence. “Hit very beautiful iron and could draw putts.”

This discreet and factual type of nature to Scheffler’s behavior has become common. This is why the best and honest evaluation of Scheffler’s grandeur cannot often be found with him, but with the very people who try to beat him.

On Friday, when a journalist prefaced a question to Shane Lowry, who played with Scheffler, to be on the sidelines of the line, Lowry Gloussa.

“Eight shots behind Scottie Scheffler is not on the sidelines of the restraint of how he plays,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Rory McILroy ended his second round at 3 sous and wanted to say that he was only five years old from the leaders who, at the time, were Brian Harman and Haotong Li at 8 sous.

Whether it is a blow like Matt Fitzpatrick, seven shots like McILroy or anything between the two, any deficit against Scheffler has a different sensation, especially when he does not only excel in his normal superpower (he is n ° 1 in the blows, the approach), but apparently exploited in a new with his putter (he is n ° 2 in lines: putting).

“He is an exceptional player. He is world n ° 1,” said Fitzpatrick, who will be Scheffler’s game partner in the last group on Saturday. “We see tiger -shaped stuff.”

When he was asked what it was to be in the running, Fitzpatrick delighted about the feeling before realizing that the guy he will face is probably used to this feeling.

He laughs. “It must be fantastic for Scottie.”

Even if Scheffler can feel inevitable, it is always opening, and there is something different to keep the tracks on courses that require something beyond target practice.

Here, professional golf course is the most inclusive. Here, the rolls of the ball, the bunkers swallow, the cross winds merge and the potential is terrorized. The formula to succeed can be simple in theory, but endless complex in execution. The distance is no longer the light and the end; The strategy is. How far a player can hit the ball is no longer an indication of how a player can do during a given tournament, but simply a most important way: put the ball in the hole.

Take a look at Harman. While a player like Fitzpatrick has made a name for speed training and the distance despite his slight frame, the native of Georgia is 5 feet 7 inches, strikes him about 275 meters from the tee and was able to win the open 2023 championship in Royal Liverpool while keeping the ball in front of him.

Harman is back, and this time, he comes for another open with the same recipe.

“I really feel comfortable here,” said Harman. “I think places like that forced you to be a little more creative. It is not so much an air attack. There are probably 10 types of clubs, irons, irons, drivers, wood that you can hit the tee. It is yours.”

Bingo.

Aside from Scheffler, who becomes even more a constant presence, whatever the genre of course, there does not seem to be a unique approach to this tournament. Just look at the ranking: McILroy and Lee Westwood, 52, are just outside the top 10, seven shots behind Scheffler. One had trouble hitting the fairway, the other has struck the most fairways on the field so far, even if it cannot hit it almost until its competitors.

There is a companion of the DP World Tour in Li (8 sous) and there are two graduates of the DP World Tour who share a family name and the potential to be stars in Nicolai Hojgaard (4 sous) and his brother Rasmus (5 sous). Both are also in the top 10.

There is Tyrrell Hatton, who has just argued at the US Open, and Tony Finau, who has not won a PGA Tour event for two years and missed the cup in the last two open championships. And then, there is Fitzpatrick, who, on paper, may be the greatest threat to keep Scheffler away from the jug of Blaret.

“I had the impression that all the facets of my game were today,” said Fitzpatrick, who won US Open 2023 in Brookline.

Of course, Elite Ballstriking is the foundation on which any winning offer will be made in Portrush – just look at the fact that Robert Macintyre and Harris English are also in the top 10. But the reason why he cannot be a closed case to Scheffler 36 holes does not concern so much who surrounds him, but more on what this tournament can do to a player.

The problems are just around every corner. A bunker in a pot here, out of limits there, or threatening gores who often look closer to fairways and green vegetables than they are. As Scheffler lived on Friday, weather forecasts are a game of riddles and gets to any T-shirt, you never know what type of wind or rain you will get. You also don’t know what type of winning links. No one expected Harman to win in 2023.

“I think the pressure is for him to win the golf tournament,” said Fitzpatrick. “I wouldn’t say that I necessarily feel so much pressure. He will have the expectation of going out and dominating.”

Fitzpatrick is right. But even if Scheffler will be prosecuted by many from Saturday, his biggest rival could be this tournament himself. He is the only major in which he played the worst in his career, relatively speaking, and because of his style, it is also the one that will probably be the most difficult to keep.

All the eyes will be on Scheffler, who will again continue the comparisons of the tiger if he clings to victory. The last player to win an open with an advance of 36 holes was Woods in 2006. At the time, Woods, like Scheffler, was player No. 1 in the world; At the time, Woods also felt inevitable.

“We will see what the weekend brings,” said Fitzpatrick. “There is still a long way to go,”