Scottie Scheffler and the U.S. Open's resident barber, Anthony "Monti" Montanez, earlier this week.
IG: @monti_the_barber
PINEHURST, N.C. — At most U.S. Opens, the cut refers to only thing: the score that players must shoot in the first two rounds to advance to the weekend. But at this 124th Open at Pinehurst No. 2, those two little words have also been used to describe something else: Scottie Scheffler’s fresh ’do.
If you’ve been watching the U.S. Open or spent any time on social media over the last 24 hours, Scheffler’s trim might have caught your attention, largely because the tapering around his sideburns and neck created tan lines that would make Stewart Cink blush. One X user jokingly dubbed Scheffler’s new look a “$10 haircut.” Another cheeky observer, in a nod to current events, suggested Scheffler had a “prison fade.” Others, the superstitious kind, questioned why Scheffler would change anything — his coif included — in the midst of such a heater.
Even Masters champion and CBS lead golf analyst Trevor Immelman couldn’t resist getting in on the fun, tweeting, “Scottie loves a fade so much that he asked for one at the barbershop.”
Which raises the burning question on all serious golf fans’ minds this week: What did Scheffler ask for?
“It was a haircut that he wanted and we delivered.”
“He said he wanted a 3 on the sides so that’s what we went with,” Anthony Montanez said Friday afternoon from his makeshift barber shop on the ground floor of the Pinehurst No. 2 clubhouse. Montanez — “Monti” to his friends and clients — is the U.S. Open’s resident barber, a gig he has held since the 2018 edition at Shinnecock Hills, which is about a 20-minute drive west from Monti’s shop in Moriches, N.Y. This week alone, Monti and his colleague, Eddie Callinas, already have cut the hair of more than 60 players, including Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas. Even Tommy Fleetwood entrusted his luscious locks to Monti.
But back to L’Affaire (Le Hair?) Scheffler.
“I said, ‘Hey, do you want me to just bring the sideburns down a little?'” Monti continued. “He said, ‘Yeah,’ so that’s what we went with. Going from that long hair, which he probably hadn’t cut in a few weeks, to short, that’s when it starts to show everything, especially when you’re in the sun every day.”
Monti said Scheffler left the chair pleased. As for Monti’s assessment of his own work?
“I felt great about the cut,” he said. “Sharp lines, nice fade—”
“Butter pecan pie, baby!” Callinas interjected, dropping a term he and Monti use for a job well done.
“Everything was good,” Monti continued. “It was a haircut that he wanted. We delivered.”
That’s what Monti does. There’s a reason he’s been asked back to all these Opens. His services also have been called upon for Senior U.S. Opens, the Walker Cup and even a couple of LIV Golf events. The players know him and respect his craftsmanship. They’ll greet him with a hug and ask him about his family or the state of his golf game.
“I’ve been it for so long that I have a comfort zone with the guys,” Monti said. “They speak to me a lot and make me feel comfortable.”
They includes the world’s most famous golfer. Monti admitted to feeling a tinge of pre-cut nerves when Tiger Woods entered his shop earlier this week — “my heart rate might have gone up a little bit,” he said — but Woods soon put him at ease. Woods’ chop of choice?
“Simple cut,” Monti said. “Little 3 on the sides, shaved him up, made him look sharp.”
Among Monti’s many clients this week: Tiger Woods. @monti_the_barber
Monti is armed and ready for more complex cuts, too. A table in the corner of his small clubhouse space — on Friday, a spirited Ping-Pong match was underway in the room next door — displays all of his neatly laid out tools: clippers, trimmers, a straight razor, a Dyson hair dryer. Monti also has an armada of shears for a slew of specific tasks: dry cutting, wet cutting, thinning, texturizing. “Rickie and Min Woo Lee, for example,” Monti said, “they have thicker hair so they want to take some of the density out, some of the weight out.”
The buzz around Scheffler’s cut was not lost on either Monti or Callinas, who said they were “cracking up” Thursday night as they browsed the many social-media quips. “I was getting texts from friends, family, clients, the team back home,” Monti said. “You gotta laugh about some of the funny things that were said. That’s all you can do.”
He added: “The funny part about it is, everyone keeps calling it the ‘high and tight,’ which as barbers makes us crack up because it’s only a 3 on the sides — it’s nowhere near a ‘high and tight.’ Just the tapered back makes it look like that.”
Any regrets? Just one, Monti said: that Scheffler no longer has facial hair.
As GOLF.com’s executive editor, Bastable is responsible for the editorial direction and voice of one of the game’s most respected and highly trafficked news and service sites. He wears many hats — editing, writing, ideating, developing, daydreaming of one day breaking 80 — and feels privileged to work with such an insanely talented and hardworking group of writers, editors and producers. Before grabbing the reins at GOLF.com, he was the features editor at GOLF Magazine. A graduate of the University of Richmond and the Columbia School of Journalism, he lives in New Jersey with his wife and foursome of kids.
