After a pedestrian approach shot midway through his opening round of the 125th U.S. Open, Scottie Scheffler smashed his iron into the Oakmont Country Club fairway. It was a jarring scene amidst Scheffler’s late-spring run into peak form, in which he has won three of his last four TOUR starts by a combined 17 shots, but it was a flickering reminder that he is, somehow, human.

Scheffler opened the U.S. Open in 3-over 73, a fine score on a difficult opening day in western Pennsylvania, and he’s nowhere near out of the tournament. But that’s the thing, it was average – and Scheffler doesn’t do average.

In professional golf, you are what your score says you are, and Scheffler gave his fellow U.S. Open competitors a glimmer of hope on Thursday. Scheffler trails 18-hole leader J.J. Spaun by seven shots, and the world No. 1 will enter Friday squarely on the projected cut line. Scheffler stands T49; the top 60 and ties through 36 holes will advance to the final two rounds at the season’s third of four major championships.

“Slow day. I made some silly mistakes out there, but at the same time, I made some key putts and some good momentum saves in my round, but overall just need to be a little sharper,” Scheffler said afterward.

“I did a good job of battling, and if I'm a little sharper tomorrow, I think I can score a bit better.”

A popular early-week hypothetical – would you take Scheffler or the field? – has been rarely constructed since Tiger Woods’ peak years in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But Scheffler’s ball-striking numbers of late have rivaled those of peak Woods, and the expectations have followed. It raises plenty of fascinating questions in how Scheffler will approach the second round, battling the cut line while also intent on winning his first U.S. Open – with a lofty mountain to climb at beastly Oakmont, which is bisected by the Pennsylvania Turnpike and hosting its 10th U.S. Open, most in history.

Although Scheffler is famous for living in the present and separating from golf when he’s at home, he’s a maniacal competitor who arrives at each tournament with the intent of winning. While some in his position Friday morning might concern themselves with the cut line, Scheffler will certainly eye a run toward the leaderboard’s first page – and position himself for a weekend run at his first U.S. Open trophy. The New Jersey native made his U.S. Open debut at the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont, with his sister Callie on the bag, and he missed the cut – even though he was a college player at the time, the result burned inside him. He expected better. It served as fuel for the next year’s U.S. Open, where he finished T27 at Erin Hills and earned low amateur honors. (It’s a rare positive memory for Scheffler, competitive golf-wise, that doesn’t involve a trophy.)

This marks Scheffler’s eighth U.S. Open appearance overall; prior to last year’s T41 at Pinehurst No. 2, he was on a run of three straight finishes inside the top seven at this tournament. He’s a three-time major champion but has yet to win his national open. Scheffler prefers not to discuss goals (that would mean considering the future, which opposes his live-in-the-moment ethos), but it’s conceivable that he would like to win a U.S. Open in his career. After his opening 73 at Oakmont, there’s ample work to be done – but his peers know better than to count him out.

“It's effortless. Every single aspect of his game is unbelievable,” world No. 5 Justin Thomas said earlier this week. “I think his mental game is better than anybody out here. To be able to play with those expectations and to stay present as often as he has, to me, is maybe more impressive than even the golf he's playing. I just think it's so, so hard to do, and it's also hard to explain if you're in his shoes. He just doesn't make any mistakes and almost kind of lets himself be in contention versus forces himself in contention.”

That’s why Scheffler’s opening round at Oakmont was so jarring. His modest statistics Thursday countered his torrid run of form, in which he has won THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson (by eight strokes), the PGA Championship (by five strokes) and the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday (by four strokes), all within the last six weeks. He started the 125th U.S. Open with a par and birdie, typical Scheffler fashion, but fell back with three bogeys in his next four holes. He turned in 2-over 37 and added a birdie at the par-4 11th before carding bogeys at Nos. 13 and 15. He closed with three pars to set the scene for a rare Friday morning on the cut line – he hasn’t missed a cut on the PGA TOUR since 2022.

For the season, Scheffler ranks first on the PGA TOUR in both Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and Strokes Gained: Approach the Green, a staggering blend of form that gives his peers a minimal window to cut into any deficit when he’s out in front. But on Thursday at Oakmont, he ranked slightly above average off the tee and essentially average with his irons.

Scheffler doesn’t do average. Oakmont rendered him mortal on this day – but there are three more days. We’d be unwise to count him out.

“I'll clean up some of those mistakes, a couple three-putts and stuff like that, and I think tomorrow will be a better day,” he said.