Scottie Scheffler describes how vocal fans can influence players

The crowd is always going to factor at the WM Phoenix Open. But as Scottie Scheffler noted following his second round, it can also influence a player’s thinking.

Scheffler shot 5-under 66 Friday to get within five shots of the lead at TPC Scottsdale. He said afterwards, “I feel much better about how I played today than yesterday (69). I felt like both days could have gotten more out of my rounds, but overall did a lot more good things out on the course and looking forward to the weekend.”

When asked about the notoriously vocal fans, Scheffler said that he tries to tune them out as best he can, but sometimes it’s impossible.

“I think of yesterday, we were on No. 6 and Max [Homa] has a putt from 12 or 15 feet, and a guy in the crowd yells out, ‘It’s dead straight!’ And then Max starts reading the putt, and [the fan] is like, ‘Stop reading it, Max, it’s dead straight!’ and he’s yelling at him,” Scheffler said. “So, like you can’t not hear it.”

Homa, for the record, missed the putt on his way to rounds of 76-69 and a missed cut.

Scheffler, the 2022 and ’23 WM champion, said, overall, the Scottsdale fans were “great” and provided a “positive effect.” The Homa incident made Scheffler recall a similar situation at last year’s FedEx St. Jude Championship – but one that went in the world No. 1’s favor.

“I remember in Memphis last year I had an instance like that where a guy was yelling in the crowd, ‘Everybody is leaving is short; hit it a little harder than you think!’ and he yelled it a bunch of times, and sure enough, two guys on a similar line left it short, and I was like, I guess I’d better hit it a little harder, and ended up hitting it a little harder and making it,” Scheffler said.

“I think sometimes there can be definitely good aspects to it.”