Scottie Scheffler eyes return to No. 1 with flawless start in Mexico

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – Scottie Scheffler had a magical 2021-22 PGA TOUR campaign, and through the first round of the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, he’s re-kindled a little bit of Mexican magic from a year ago. Scheffler, who finished fourth at Mayakoba last season, opened this year’s edition with a bogey-free 65. He was tied for fifth when the morning wave finished Thursday at El Camaleón Golf Course. Will Gordon shot a 9-under 62 to take the early lead. “Solid golf. A clean card’s really nice,” said Scheffler, who made three birdies on both his front and back nine. The key part to Scheffler’s round, he said, was how he scrambled for par- after taking a drop he knocked his approach to just a few feet on the par-4 third – and how he followed that with a tee-ball on the par-3 fourth to gimmie range. “I felt like a lot of my birdies today I just hit it really close to the hole,” said Scheffler. “Like No. 4 was really close, No. 5 was a tap-in. No. 9 may have been the longest birdie putt I made today, and it was like seven feet. “I think when you’re hitting the ball well here, you’re going to get a ton of looks. I mean, the fairways are very narrow, but there’s a little bit of space. Really, you’ve just got to keep the ball in play. If you’re hitting fairways off the tee, the golf course will really open up for you. And you can get in some trouble in a hurry pretty much on any hole just because off the fairways is jungle.” Scheffler is grouped with Viktor Hovland, the two-time defending champion, for the first two rounds. Hovland, who shot a matching 6-under 65, went on a heater after making the turn – firing a 6-under 30 for his second nine holes. Scheffler said although “for the most part” he was trying to stay in his own zone, it was good to see Hovland score well. “It’s nice when you’re on the golf course and you can see other players hitting really good shots,” said Scheffler. “I think that’s good kind of momentum for the group, when somebody starts playing well, the other guys can kind of feed off of it sometimes.” With a win or solo second result this week Scheffler will return to No.1 in the Official World Golf Ranking after ceding it to Rory McIlroy two weeks ago, with McIlroy’s triumph at THE CJ CUP in South Carolina. But Scheffler’s still got 54 holes of golf left before he’s thinking about getting back to world number one. He’s relaxing this week after a long season that featured four wins and PGA TOUR Player of the Year honors. He took a Mexican cooking class Wednesday night with his wife Meredith, plus Max McGreevy and his fiancé – “I’ll get by,” he said about his cooking skills normally. “Last night was fun having them show us what to do.” – but came out alongside the two-time defending champion at Mayakoba to get himself firmly in the mix through 18 holes. Scheffler’s putting has been a question mark since his Masters triumph (he’s lost strokes on the greens in seven of his nine starts since then) but he said he had “solid” putts at THE CJ CUP, despite a T45 result, and more solid putts today – only needing 26. “Solid golf is fun. Stress-free,” said Scheffler. “If you can keep the ball in play, the golf course is gettable.” So, too, is the world number one ranking.

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