Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Scottie Scheffler believes he ‘gets’ links golf straight away

Scottie Scheffler enjoying the 'crazy wind' at The Renaissance on Wednesday.
Scottie Scheffler enjoying the 'crazy wind' at The Renaissance on Wednesday.

World No 1 and Masters champion Scottie Scheffler is an absolute novice at links golf – he’s played just four courses – but he thinks he ‘got’ it right off the bat.

The World No 1 hasn’t played a Scottish links other than last year’s Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance. Most purists would insist doesn’t even actually qualify as a links course. He’ll be visiting St Andrews for the first time next week.

He played Sandwich last year in The Open, Ballybunion and Lahinch last week while in Ireland. That’s your lot.

“When I first came over here, everyone is like, ‘oh, have to play your ball along the ground’,” he recalled.” I’m thinking, ‘they are making it up, I’ll just play like I normally do at home.’

“But when you get out here, it came really naturally to me. When I get around the greens and don’t see my normal pitches, it’s just much simpler to play those bouncier shots into the greens. It’s just something that I just immediately saw.

“In the US you play by the numbers. Out here you can bounce it and use the mounds and hills and whatever you want. You’re not limited by stuff that you’re limited by at home.”

‘You’re not really dictated by anything’

That freedom makes it much more fun, he thinks.

“I think here I’m just hitting so many different types of shots. When it gets this windy, Teddy (Scott, his caddie) just hands me a club and is like, `I think it’s a four – good luck, man.’

“You’ve got to take ownership of what you’re doing. Here, you’re not really dictated by anything. Outside of the wind, you can kind of just do whatever you want, which is really fun.”

Scheffler is firmly on the side of the loyalists on the PGA Tour and while World No 1, he feels it necessary to follow the senior figures.

“There are a lot of guys have been carrying this tour for years; Rory, Tiger, Jordan, JT,” he said.

“As far as I’m concerned wherever those guys are going, that’s where I’m going to be.

“I’m friends with a lot of guys at different levels on the tour and they all have different concerns that need to be addressed.

“It’s evident that we have guys like Rory and Tiger that are very involved in what the tour does. I think they’re doing a really good job in that.”

Conversation