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'Kind of stupid': Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele seething over mud balls and missed shots at PGA Championship

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Scottie Scheffler stood over his drive in the fairway of the 16th, the tee 322 yards behind him. He was in perfect position to conquer the first leg of Quail Hollow’s fearsome Green Mile, the three-hole scorecard-swallowing closing stretch.

One swing later, the World No. 1 was in the water.

Nearby sat Xander Schauffele’s 323-yard drive, also right there in the middle of the fairway. And one swing later, the World No. 3 was also in the water.

Two of the best players on the planet, two perfect tee shots, two shots flared into the water, two double bogeys. This is not normal.

The culprit? The mud that runs beneath Quail Hollow’s gorgeous fairways, thanks to the 5 inches of rain that fell on the property in the last two days. The co-conspirator? The PGA of America, which issued a statement Wednesday night saying, basically, toughen up, buttercups.

"We do not plan to play preferred lies. The playing surfaces are outstanding and are drying by the hour. We are mowing the fairways this evening. We are looking forward to an exciting opening round to the 107th PGA Championship."

“Exciting” would be one word for it, but not the word that Scheffler, Schauffele and others would use.

'It's frustrating'

“It's frustrating to hit the ball in the middle of the fairway and get mud on it and have no idea where it's going to go,” Scheffler said. “I understand it's part of the game, but there's nothing more frustrating for a player. You spend your whole life trying to learn how to control a golf ball, and due to a rules decision all of a sudden you have absolutely no control over where that golf ball goes.”

“We were in the middle of the fairway, and I don't know, we had to aim right of the grandstands probably,” Schauffele said. “It's just unfortunate to be hitting good shots and to pay them off that way. It's kind of stupid.”

Both Scheffler and Schauffele walked off the hole with double-bogeys. (So did the third member of their trio, Rory McIlroy, but for non-water-related reasons.) Scheffler managed to rebound and finish the round at 2-under, while Schauffele, the defending champion, wrapped at 1-over and McIlroy limped in at 3-over.

“I wouldn't want to go in the locker room because I'm sure a lot of guys aren't super happy with sort of the conditions there,” Schauffele said after his round. “I feel like the grass is so good, there is no real advantage to cleaning your ball in the fairway. The course is completely tipped out. It sucks that you're kind of 50/50 once you hit the fairway.”

Scheffler, not normally a demonstrative sort, had what for him qualifies as a raging splutter of an answer, a 429-word excoriation that touched on agronomy, European vs. American courses, and the philosophy of fairness in majors.

“I understand how a golf purist would be, ‘oh, play it as it lies,’” Scheffler said. “But I don't think they understand what it's like literally working your entire life to learn how to hit a golf ball and control it and hit shots and control distance, and all of a sudden due to a rules decision that is completely taken away from us by chance.”

'Watery, muddy residue'

Worth noting: the volume of players’ complaints was, to some extent, inversely proportional to their final score. “It's going to be a few guys complaining about [mud balls], obviously, over the first couple of days,” said Ryan Fox, 4-under on the day, “but I thought the golf course played really, really well considering how much rain we've had Monday, Tuesday this week.”

“Two times I had to take casual relief from the fairway, which helped,” said Luke Donald, who also finished 4-under on the day. “The rest of the time, it was just sort of a watery, muddy residue on it, at times. It wasn't really lumps of mud, which that's when it gets very dicey.”

“It wasn't like we had … a whole quarter or half the ball that was covered,” said Alex Smalley, also at 4-under. “It was only a couple specks here and there, and it wasn't anything too significant, but it was enough to definitely affect the flight some. It wasn't like it was going to turn 20 or 30 or 40 yards on you.”

(From a historical perspective, after the first round at the 2017 PGA at Quail Hollow, Kevin Kisner and Thorbjørn Olesen shared the lead at 4-under. Halfway through Thursday, Ryan Gerard held the clubhouse lead at 5-under.)

As for how the rest of the week will unfold? Well, consider the source when considering the forecast:

Fox: “Looks like we're going to have good weather today and tomorrow, and that should dry the course out for the weekend really nicely.”

Schauffele: “The mud balls are going to get worse … as the place dries up. They're going to get in that perfect cake zone to where it's kind of muddy underneath and then picking up mud on the way through.”

There’s no more rain in the forecast for Quail Hollow this week. But the hail of player complaints might just be getting started.

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