Scottie Scheffler has taken advantage of his time so far in France, having gone to Olympic table tennis with plans to check out gymnastics before settling down to concentrate on his first Olympic Golf Tournament.
He and his wife, Meredith, also visited the Louvre and managed to escape without too many people figuring out that the No. 1-ranked golfer in the world was in their midst.
“I could not believe how many people were in there and how big it was. That definitely was—definitely shocked me a little bit just how many people were in there and how big the place was,” Scheffler said during a news conference at Le Golf National, site of this week’s tournament outside Paris. “I couldn't believe how big it was.
“But we saw the Mona Lisa which was really cool and saw some of the crown jewels. And as we were walking around, I felt like we saw 1/10th of the museum at most. We were there for two hours and I felt like I could have been there for days exploring around looking at all the old paintings.
“I would say the paintings were something that really took me back. It was pretty wild how big they were and how talented people were back then, and also how long they preserved them for as long as they have. I can get pretty interested in that kind of stuff just standing there reading the descriptions of all the stuff and the images, and it was definitely a fun few hours.”
So Scheffler got a nice little history lesson. If he could add a gold medal to his second Masters title, the Players Championship and four other wins this year, that would be an impressive bonus.
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Scheffler is coming off a tie for seventh at the British Open where he was in the thick of contention until a four-putt—one of the putts was from off the green—at the par-4 9th hole. That effectively knocked him from contention.
It was a less-than-stellar putting week for Scheffler, who has improved in that area significantly this year.
“I would have felt like some weeks, the ball is going up towards the hole and it tends to go in and there's other weeks where is it tends to go towards the edge and lip out, and felt like I was on the lip-out side of the week,” Scheffler said. “But still coming in having a T7 and putting up a good fight was a solid week overall. But Xander played some great golf.”
Scheffler was referring to Xander Schauffele, who won his second major title of the year after also having captured the PGA Championship. Schauffele, Scheffler, Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark are the four Americans in the 60-player Olympic field that begins play Thursday.
After the Open, Scheffler said he and his family headed to a location south of Paris to get in some rest and relaxation while also practicing. He played the Le Golf National course for the first time on Sunday and played another nine holes Monday.
The course was the site of the 2018 Ryder Cup, where the Americans were trounced. None of those players made the Olympic field although five players from that European team did, including Jon Rahm.
Helping Scheffler is his caddie, Ted Scott, who worked that Ryder Cup for Bubba Watson.
“The rough is not nearly as penal as it was for the Ryder Cup and right now the golf course is not nearly as firm,” Scheffler said. “We'll see how the weather is for the rest of the week but I'm sure it will firm up a bit if we get no rain.
“Teddy did mention how much the course changed from practice rounds to tournaments that week—from the practice rounds to the tournament this week. So maybe it will be a little bit similar this week in terms of the golf course changing. But I did watch the Ryder Cup and Ted has got some good info from the course that week.”
Scheffler has a lot of golf ahead. The FedEx Cup playoffs—he’s been leading the points list for months—follow just a week after the Olympic tournament ends. And then the Presidents Cup.
“It would be very special to have the gold medal,” he said. “If I don't, my life is certainly not going to end but it would be extremely special to have a gold medal and it's definitely one of the reasons why I'm here this week. I didn't come here to—I love going to watch table tennis yesterday but that's not why I showed up.
“I try to place an equal amount of value to all the tournaments I play. I feel like that any time I show up, I'm trying to do my best, and that's definitely the case this week. It's definitely special to be part of the Olympics and I'm looking forward to the chance to compete for a medal for our country.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Scottie Scheffler Soaking in the Full Paris Experience Before Chasing Olympic Gold.
