Scottie Scheffler’s U.S. Open miss left him with 1 unshakeable thought

He arrived as the overwhelming favorite, having won three of his last four starts, including the 2025 PGA Championship. Facing a brutal Oakmont track that would demand precision, patience and a good short game, Scottie Scheffler seemed to be the only pick to win the 2025 U.S. Open when the week began.

A win would give him four career majors and see him arrive at the 2025 Open Championship at Royal Portrush on the precipice of the career Grand Slam.

In some other universe, the 2025 U.S. Open is Scottie Scheffler’s latest masterpiece. In that realm, he plods his way around the soggy, iconic track playing away from danger, scrambling for par and outlasting a field that unraveled as the conditions worsened over the weekend.

But that was not this reality. In this reality at this U.S. Open, Scottie Scheffler was mortal.

The world No. 1 hung tough during the first two rounds and arrived on the weekend at four over. He seemed primed to make Moving Day jump, rising up the leaderboard while those out ahead, including his good friend Sam Burns, fell back to him.

Instead, Scheffler’s putter, which has gone from Achilles’ heel to weapon in a little over a year, betrayed him. He missed a four-foot, five-inch putt for par to open Saturday’s third round. Seven holes later, he missed a two-foot, five-inch putt for par on No. 8. He also missed a six-foot putt for birdie on No. 14. Scheffler shot even par on Saturday and found himself entering the final round seven shots back of Burns.

And still, his name lorded over the leaderboard — the gravity attempting to drag those who had played better through 54 holes down to him.

Scheffler’s final round started with a dud, making a sloppy double bogey on the par-4 third. Now nine shots back, it seemed like Scheffler’s tournament was officially over. And yet, it wasn’t. Scheffler birdied Nos. 4 and 6 to get back to four over and go out in even-par 35. As the heavens opened and dumped on Oakmont, Burns and the other leaders started to slide back. When play resumed after an almost two-hour delay, it appeared as if Scheffler had life with Burns, Adam Scott, J.J. Spaun and Viktor Hovland being battered by the conditions.

On the green at the par-4 11th, Scheffler faced a two-foot, five-inch putt for par to stay within five of a shrinking lead. He blew it past the hole. He bounced right back with birdie and the deficit was back to five and shrinking with everyone in trouble behind him. Scheffler needed a strong finish and to post something around even to see if it would be enough.

But he couldn’t get there.

Scheffler’s birdie attempts on 13 and 14 scared the hole but didn’t drop. He survived 15 and 16 before making biridie at 17 to get to 3 over. By then, it was clear: Scottie Scheffler could have won this U.S. Open, joining the elite group of golf legends to tame Oakmont. Instead, a handful of missed short putts and an uncharacteristically poor driving week that saw him hit just 51 percent of his fairways led him to finish in a tie for seventh at four over, while J.J. Spaun buckled down and outlasted everyone to become a major champion.

Afterward, tired from the grind and still soaked from the Sunday deluge, Scheffler looked back on a major that could have been a lot different. He didn’t play his best. The Scheffler A game did not make the trip to western Pennsylvania. But he also wasn’t the beneficiary of the breaks sometimes needed to survive the toughest test in golf.

“My main takeaway is I battled as hard as I did this week,” Scheffler said. “I was really proud mentally of how I was over the course of four days. I did a lot of things out there that could really kind of break a week, and I never really got that one good break that kind of propels you. I’d hit it this far off, and seemingly every time I did, I was punished pretty severely for it.

“Even today, I make that double early, and then I come back, I birdie 4. I hit what I feel like is a good tee shot on 5, and it’s just off the first cut and I don’t have a stance again. Just little things like that add up over the course of a week. That’s the second time this week it’s happened where I thought the ball is in the fairway, I get up there, and I actually don’t have a stance, I’m chipping out sideways. I could go on and on. Hitting a pin with an iron shot where the ball should be a foot from the hole and all of a sudden I’ve got 20 feet. Just little stuff like that, where the weeks that you win, you need to have good luck sometimes in order to win tournaments. This week, the way I was battling, I wasn’t able to give myself enough chances.”

Despite not having his best stuff when he needed it most, Scheffler battled through the first three days at Oakmont. Where Bryson DeChambeau ejected himself early and Rory McIlroy puttered and billowed out of contention, Scheffler scratched and clawed to give himself every chance to win his first U.S. Open.

The patented Scheffler game arrived on Sunday, but by that time, it was too late. There were too many shots surrendered, too many opportunities missed, too many short putts that slipped away.

At Oakmont, it’s almost impossible to survive when you’re in search mode. That Scheffler felt inevitable even while his tee shots continued to sail into the church pew bunkers and bound into the punishing rough speaks to the aura of inevitability he has created while ascending to the top of the sport.

But even if Scottie Scheffler, with all of his rare golfing gifts, can’t bend the sport to his will without his tools.

“If I had four days like I did today, I think it would have been a different story,” Scheffler said. “I was playing kind of behind the eight ball most of the week hitting the ball in the rough. Overall, proud of how I battled, gave myself a chance, but ultimately didn’t have enough.”

Scottie Scheffler could’ve won this U.S. Open. It was there for the taking on the weekend, begging the best player in the world to do what he has done so many times and wrestle it away from the field.

But this time the putts didn’t fall, the answers arrived too late, and Scottie Scheffler left Oakmont with one thing ringing in his head.

“A few more putts drop today, I think it’s a little different story,” Scheffler said.