PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland -- Scottie Scheffler barely spent time among the Royal Portrush fairways Thursday, hitting only three of the 14 on the course during his opening round of the Open Championship.
But while typically missing fairways on Portrush's Dunluce Links can be a recipe for disaster, the No. 1 player in the world showed why he's often immune to even his own poor play, battling for an impressive round of 3-under 68 despite his shaky play off the tee.
"When it's raining sideways, it's actually, believe it or not, not that easy to get the ball in the fairway," Scheffler said sarcastically. "I felt like I hit the ball nice off the tee, and really only had one swing I wasn't too happy with -- on maybe the second hole. But outside of that, I felt like I hit a lot of good tee shots, hit the ball really solid, so definitely a good bit of confidence for the next couple rounds."
Scheffler might have preached positivity after his round, but once he finished speaking to the media, he headed over to the range to work on his driver swing.
The three-time major winner buoyed his subpar driving with his customary elite approach game (+3.27 strokes gained) and a putting performance that was far better than what he showed at the Scottish Open last week. There, he lost 1.45 strokes with his putting while still finishing inside the top 10. On Thursday at Portrush, where he described the greens as "smoother," Scheffler gained 2.26 strokes on the greens.
"Putting is one of those deals where, especially when there's a little bit of activity on the greens, you can hit a lot of good putts that don't go in," Scheffler said. "I'm trying to do my best to be perfect every week, but some weeks the putts just aren't going in and I did a good job battling last week."
This week, however, Scheffler -- who spent time Tuesday speaking about how he often finds the fleeting nature of winning to be pointless -- clarified that he isn't settling for a top-10 finish and is trying to do everything to win the tournament.
"I think I've made that pretty clear over the course of my career," Scheffler said. "At times I feel like maybe I should be a little less honest. Maybe I shouldn't have said the stuff I said [Tuesday], because now I'm going to get asked about it more. But really it's just a matter of perspective, and I've had some players come up to me and say that they feel and think the same things."
Though he may have gotten away with missing 11 fairways Thursday, the rest of the week will likely require more -- not just from Scheffler's driving but from his overall game and mentality. His group played roughly half its round Thursday in steady wind and rain.
The rain in particular, Scheffler said, makes things tougher than it appears.
"Wind is something that obviously makes links golf challenging, but the rain adds a whole new element to it, especially when you're hitting the tee balls," Scheffler said. "You get a little moisture between the club face and the ball, especially with the longer clubs and the woods, and it can be pretty challenging."
But as he showed Thursday, Scheffler is more than up for that challenge.