Championship Golf: Two Greats Talk About How to Play It

 With the 125th U.S. Open golf championship upon us, and the fabled Oakmont Country Club as the test, we will hear one attempt after another at a description of what it will take to win. 

Two weeks ago, after Scottie Scheffler won the Memorial for his third PGA Tour victory of the year, he was joined by Jack Nicklaus, the tournament host, for the the post-tournament champion's press conference, and the two talked about how a golfer playing at the top of the game plays championship golf. And the U.S. Open was definitely on everyone's mind.

 SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: "The golf course was a great test this week. The rough was as healthy as I had seen it.  We've had that length of rough before, but not the thickness.  It was pretty nasty and it was a good challenge."

 JACK NICKLAUS: "You know, Scottie's right about the rough.  We had a wet spring.  You're going to find the same rough at Oakmont.  I mean, it's the same grass.  It will be the same thing all through the whole Midwest.  I think we were lucky to get through the week with some of the weather we had and some of the odd conditions.  But what it did is it created a different condition every day.  We didn't have two days a like, and your champion is the one who manages all those conditions, and Scottie managed them. 

 "Scottie, he didn't play, for him, spectacular golf.  He played what he should do.  He played good, solid, smart golf and, you know, three 70s and a 68, that's pretty good golf under the conditions that were out there.  That's what the best player in the world does.  He comes out and does things the right way and manages it, and he sees who is on the leaderboard and who is challenging him.

 "And I'm sure you watch the leaderboard, don't you?"

Jack Nicklaus' Major Championship Record

 SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  "Um-hum."

Scottie Scheffler's Major Championship Record

 JACK NICKLAUS:  "You've got to know who is out there, you got to know what they're doing, you got to know what you have to do. 

 "And he did.  We're so proud to have Scottie not only as a champion last year, but again this year.  We're very happy for him too.  Obviously, very happy for him.

 QUESTION:  "Mr. Nicklaus, obviously, you were great player and you've seen some great players in your time as well. Given the body of work that Scottie is putting together, what makes him elite? A great player."

 JACK NICKLAUS:  "Well, I think that great players are ones who rise to the occasion and ones who know how to play coming down the stretch in important events.  Looking at the leaderboard today, he didn't have -- I mean, Ben Griffin's a nice player, Sepp Straka is a nice player, Nick Taylor is a nice player.  Those were all the guys that were there basically coming down the stretch.

 "But he knows that those guys, you know, are not in his league.  Now, if he would have had -- I don't know who else it might have been, but if he had somebody else at the top, if Xander or somebody like that would have been there, he might have said, Well, that might be a little tougher.  I might have to do something different.  He didn't have to.

 "I always was a -- I just asked Scottie if he watched the leaderboard.  He says, Yeah, I do.  Well, I did too.  I always watched the leaderboard and found out what my competition was and always felt like what level I had to play to fight that competition off.  Sometimes you would have to fight it off because you knew they would self-destruct.

 "So, obviously, you just don't make dumb mistakes, play solid golf, and you win.  He is such a good player, and he drove the ball beautifully today.  Like he said, he drove the ball, but he never put himself in jeopardy.  He didn't put himself in a position to lose the golf tournament.  He was always in a position to win.  And if he had to do something more spectacular, he was in a position to do so.  But he didn't have to.

 "So you don't take any chances to do that. ... there's places where you play when you've got to finish and finish properly that don't put you in jeopardy.  That's what he did.  That's what good players do."

 QUESTION:  "Scottie, Jack mentioned the rough is going to be here like it's going to be at Oakmont in two weeks. How do you feel this prepared you for that test and what do you think of playing at Oakmont in two weeks?"

 SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  "Well, this golf course, like Oakmont, I think this is a place where if there's a weakness in your game, this golf course is going expose it pretty quick.  It's a challenging week and this is always a good barometer of where you're at playing because, I mean, each day on the course -- I think the first two days you had guys shoot 65.  I think the best round on Saturday was 66 and the best round today was 65.  So there's always opportunity to shoot great scores and hit great shots.  It's just a matter of stepping up there and hitting the shots.

 "That's what I think is great about this golf course, is there's opportunity and there's good difficulty.  As far as prep work for the U.S. Open, I mean, like you said, the rough's going to be pretty similar and I think it's great prep."

 QUESTION:  "You're talking about watching scoreboards, winning the tee box.  Just curious on maybe a level 1 to 10, what is your level of competitive killer instinct?"

 SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  "I mean, I have no idea."

 JACK NICKLAUS:  "Competitive what?"

 SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  "Competitive instinct. Is that what you said?"

 Q.  "Yeah, killer instinct to really - "

JACK NICKLAUS:  "He didn't need any.  No, seriously, he doesn't.  I mean, he's enough - I'll answer for you. 

 "You're enough of a competitor and you're a good competitor that he'll compete to what he has to do.  I mean, he doesn't want to tell you -- he doesn't want to brag about what he does.  But he has the ability to bring his level to whatever level it needs to be.  That's what good players do.  And, you know, he's not a good players.  He's a great player.  I mean, look at the record that he has had the last few years.  It's unbelievable."

 QUESTION:  "To follow up, if someone said to you, when you get the bit in your mouth, you just go, is that fair -- is that a fair assessment?  You just don't look at anything else and you just go forward and don't really pay attention to what those guys are doing except for what's on the leaderboard?

 SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  "Well, the thing about leaderboard watching is sometimes I think it's harder to not look at the leaderboard than it is to look at it.  The leaderboards are right there on the golf course, and I think it would be more of a challenge for me to try not look at them, and so that would be almost more of a distracting thing.

 "So it's kind of nice to have an understanding of where guys are at on the leaderboard.  It's not going to change the way I play, unless, like I said, I'm five shots back on the back nine, I might change a line or two going into some pins. But overall, I mean, when you're looking at a 72-hole tournament, if I'm thinking properly and hitting the correct shots, I should have a decent chance there on Sunday. 

 "And so when it comes to playing a tournament, I try and bring the same level of intensity to Thursday as you do Sunday.  So when you're coming out here late on Sunday, nothing really changes for me because I try to bring that intensity to the first tee on Thursday.

 "I treat each tournament individually, and every tournament's different, and I try to do my best to come out here and compete.  That's what I love to do.  I love being able to play the PGA Tour, and I love being able to compete against the best players in the world and play on great golf courses like this one and be able to play in these legacy tournaments, like Mr. Palmer's tournament, Mr. Nicklaus's tournament. ...

 "I always just dreamed of playing these tournaments.  I never think about dominating.  I don't -- it's a waste of time for me to think about that kind of stuff.  I'm just trying to be the best that I can be and work hard and use the gifts that I have for good and that's pretty much it."

 JACK NICKLAUS: "Let me sort of add to that.  If he is thinking about being the best and starts believing he's the best, pretty soon he starts scratching his ears out here like this, and that's death. 

 "Once you start to get a big head and you believe you're too good, then you will get beat.  As long as you keep trying to play well, climb a mountain, try to feel like he's trying to get better, trying to be smart, be consistent, and playing what he thinks is the best golf he can play at that particular time, that's when you play well, not when you're sitting they're saying, Oh, I'm really this good.  I can do that. 

 "No, no. I never thought that one time when I played.  I always felt like, hey, you know, I got 144 guys or whatever it might be out there to play.  I've got to play well to beat 'em.  Once I got myself into position, you know, to win, then you got to be smart about how you finish it.  And that's the way he's playing.  He reminds me so much of the way I like to play. 

I don't think I played nearly as well as he played.  He's playing better than I played and more consistent.  He's just been playing fantastic, and I love watching him play. 

Whether it's here or on the television or whatever it is, I love to watch.  Anytime he's playing, I want to watch."

 QUESTION:  "But kind of along those lines, Jack had spoken earlier in the week about how to post a good score, and it was about fairways and greens and hitting 14 or so greens, always being around the hole, you're not going to make 'em all, but make a percentage and do it that way instead of holing three 15-footers and a couple of 20-footers.  And it sounded a lot like the way you played, and I wondered if you could relate to some of the way he was thinking. If I quoted you right, Jack.  I think I did."

 JACK NICKLAUS:  "Yeah, I never worried about putting.  I felt I would make my percentage.  I didn't need to.  If I knocked it closer to the holes, I would knock some of 'em in.  I didn't worry about if I missed some.  You missed some.  You missed some today, you missed some yesterday, you missed some all week.  But you made a lot too.

 "He gave himself enough chances that he didn't have to be special with the putter.  He just needed to be good and solid with it.

 SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  "Yeah, I think the way I look at tournaments is, you know, 72 holes is a lot of golf.  Early in my career I felt like I didn't bring enough intensity to the first couple rounds.  Like I would bring a lot of intensity on Saturday and Sunday, but I was always kind of on the outside looking in when it came to leaderboards, and that's one thing I think that Tiger was really good at was bringing that level of intensity to each and every shot."

 JACK NICKLAUS:  "On Thursday."

 SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  "Hungry."

 JACK NICKLAUS:  "Started the tournament with it."

 SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  "Yeah."

 JACK NICKLAUS:  "He was really good at it."

 SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  "That's something I always tried to emulate.  I never got to play with Mr. Nicklaus, but I would assume that's probably a pretty similar thought process that he brought to each round.  If you're going to play 72 holes, I mean, how many shots did I hit this week, 278?"

 JACK NICKLAUS:  "278."

 SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  "278.  That's a lot of shots.  And I mean - "

JACK NICKLAUS:  "And the first 70 better be good ones too, right."

 SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  "Yeah, the first 70 matters as much as the last one."

 JACK NICKLAUS:  "That's right."

 SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  "And each tournament week feels like a marathon, especially when you're playing a difficult golf course like this, so it's just more important to stay in the proper head space and try and hit shots and then go from there."

 Q.  On the putting, and you said over the last couple days, going over your round, It could have been a couple better, but I'm happy with the I way I played, etcetera.  When you got over par putts today, those seemed big.  I just wondered if you think differently over - Are you thinking differently about those than any other putts and if not, can you make something up?

 SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  (Laughing).  "Can you make something up?"

 JACK NICKLAUS:  "I don't know.  What do you want to make up?"

 SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  (Laughing).  No, I mean, I really don't have a different thought process over different putts. 

I'm trying to -- if I got a good look from about 10 feet I'm usually trying to give it a good chance to go in.  I feel like golf sometimes, it's not a game where -- it's not like other sports where, like if we were playing football or basketball-- compared to basketball, like if I get the ball at the three-point line in basketball I can figure out a way to force my way to get there to the hoop and try and put up a layup. Like I can figure out a way to either back the guy down or go around him, you can use brute force.

 "In golf you can't do that.  You can will yourself to hit and execute the right way, but you can't force the ball to go into the hole.  I think a lot of times you got to let these rounds come to you, and I feel like I've improved at that skill over time.  Golf's not a game where you can just use that brute force.  You have to be patient, you have to, I mean it tests you each and every time you go out and play.  I mean, it's really, like you're looking in the mirror each and every time you go out and play golf.  It's as challenging mentally as it is physically."

 QUESTION:  "You talked about the importance of staying in the present, which can be hard for a lot of people, but where does that importance for you, the focus on that, come from, and is there anyone or anything throughout your life that has helped you be, get better at staying in the present?"

 SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  "Well, my college coach, Coach Fields was kind of the first person that introduced that concept to me.  When I first got to college I was trying to date this girl whose name was Meredith, and I would come out to the course and if she shot me a text or gave me a phone call I would pick it up.  I was still trying to woo her at that point.  And I would get a little distracted when it came to practicing.  And coach sat me down one day and said, Hey listen, when you're at the golf course you need to be focused on what you're doing at the golf course.  When you're in class you need to be paying attention in class. 

And he's like, When you get to do your social stuff you need to be present where you are.

 "And it's just, I think it's a better way to try to enjoy life.  If I can be present where I am -- like if I'm at home thinking about golf am I going to be fully enjoying the time I get to spend with Meredith and Bennett?  Probably not.

 "And if I'm at the golf course thinking about being at home, I'm probably not going to be focused in my practice, not going to get the most out of it. 

 "So I think it's a daily battle to try and focus on the task at hand, and I think it's a bit of a kind of a living-life-to-the-fullest type of thing.  I think when you're thinking about what you're doing, I think that's when you're living."

The 125th U.S. Open golf championship begins Thursday.