SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Here at the WM Phoenix Open, the atmosphere is everything. Fans are loud and heckling is a given. And it’s not just limited to the famous 16th hole. What used to be a single stadium has expanded over the years, with multi-level hospitality enclaves lining the 17th and 18th holes as well.
If you want to be successful at TPC Scottsdale, it’s important to embrace the chaos. Scottie Scheffler is a player who seems to understand the assignment. He’s going for a three-peat in Scottsdale this week after winning the tournament’s previous two editions.
“It’s definitely a lot of fun playing in this event,” Scheffler said in his pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday. “It’s fun getting — it’s not as fun getting booed, but it’s fun getting the loud cheers out there when you do something good, but you pay the price when you hit a bad shot, too.”
With hundreds of thousands of people on-site at TPC Scottsdale throughout the tournament, enjoying the party-first vibe, heckling is a given. But how does Scheffler prepare for the gauntlet of fan noise? Turns out, he gets practice from a surprising source.
“I’m fairly used to the heckling,” he said. “Where I practice at home, I’ve got a good group of guys that we play golf with and I get heckled pretty often, and when I’m practicing on the range there’s usually a group of 10- to 15-year-old kids that are trashing me all the time, so the heckling is something I’m pretty used to.”
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Teens and pre-teens who are comfortable trash-talking the World No. 1 while he’s practicing? That’s bold! Ultimately, though, Scheffler says the key to staying calm throughout his round comes from his preparation.
“When I go out to the first tee, I just remind myself that I’ve done everything I could to play well,” he said. “What that means is when I’m at home, I practice as hard as I can, I remain focused, and then when I step up on the first tee, it’s all about controlling what I can control.
“All I can do on the first tee is have a shot in mind and do my best to hit that shot, and the rest isn’t up to me,” he continued. “I may get a bad bounce in the fairway. The ball may run into a divot. I may get a gust of wind. But all I can do is focus on controlling what I do versus everything else.”
Scheffler’s three-peat quest begins at 2:33 p.m. ET on Thursday, when he’ll play alongside Wyndham Clark and Hideki Matsuyama. For more info on how to watch the action, click here.
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