Scottie Scheffler insists winning the career Grand Slam is not a "motivating factor" as he prepares to take his first shot at golfing immortality at the U.S. Open.
The American's victories at last season's US PGA and Open Championships, coupled with his previous Masters wins, means victory at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club this week would see him become just the seventh player to win all four of the biggest titles in men's golf.
Rory McIlroy joined Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in that club at the 11th time of asking at the 2025 Masters, openly admitting that the pressure had built on him with every missed opportunity at Augusta National.
Scheffler is familar with having to wait for glory, with his maiden victory on the PGA TOUR coming nearly four years affter he turned professional but since then he has been all-conquering, adding a further 19, including his four Majors, and Olympic Gold and spending 196 weeks at World Number One.
And in a press conference ahead of the action getting under way, he did not look like a man feeling the weight of pressure.
"It's kind of a funny thing," he said. "It's like, yeah, if I win this tournament, that would be amazing, but I think then I show up the next week, and it's like, 'OK, now Scottie's won the Grand Slam, he's won all these golf tournaments. Now where do we go from here?'.
"So no matter what, I think as a player and as a professional athlete, you're never going to live up to the expectations of people. I think sometimes that's a little bit of the fallacy in our sport is like, if I win the U.S. Open, then I'm going to be satisfied. I've won all the tournaments, and my career is essentially over, and I've accomplished everything I could want to accomplish. But I think the goal posts are always just moved further and further.
"If you took my career from where I was as a college player, I would have extremely overachieved being in this position. I wasn't the best college player. I had a decent college career, but by no means was I a can't-miss type of prospect.
"The guys that turned pro at the time were better than me. There were guys, you look at Collin Morikawa and (Viktor) Hovland and Matt Wolff, those guys were winning tournaments immediately when they turned pro, and I had a little bit of a slower burn in terms of the development of my career.
"For me, would it be a dream to win the U.S. Open? Of course. But at the end of the day, the Grand Slam has never been a motivating factor for me. I always just wanted to be the best version of myself, and that got me this far.
"So when it comes to this golf tournament, like I said, I'm going to step on the first tee and remind myself I've done everything I possibly could in order to play well, and now it's just a matter of going out there and trying to execute and kind of going back to enjoying the competition versus feeling like you have to win for some reason."
All smiles for Scottie Scheffler who could become just the seventh player in history to complete the career Grand Slam with a win this week at Shinnecock Hills ⏳#USOpen pic.twitter.com/oUJ750jfSQ
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) June 16, 2026
Shinnecock Hills is renowned as a links style course, with winds and fast greens likely to defend it and provide a stiff test for the world's best.
Scheffler himself does not believe the course plays like a traditional links but he does feel that the wind will be a major factor in deciding a champion this week.
"The wind has changed a little bit," he said. "Some of the rumours I heard about this place is it could even switch a decent amount throughout the day, as well.
"I think this week we're looking mostly at a westerly wind. There's some south wind as well one day, but I think it's mostly out of the west. Overall, it looks like it could dry out the golf course pretty quickly. Everything so far looks pretty nice to me.
"I think a lot of it is mostly just experience, especially in different types of winds. Like the wind at Pebble Beach is different than the wind here, and it's different than the wind at home. When it's hot, the ball doesn't get as affected by the wind.
"Here the wind is a bit heavier. I wouldn't say it's as heavy as a Pebble Beach, but it is a pretty heavy wind. I think a lot of that you just learn from experience and playing in all different kinds of conditions.
"A lot of it's execution, and then there's definitely an element of patience to it because you can hit some pretty decent shots and find yourself in some spots that are quite brutal, especially when you get some high winds.
"So, yeah, a lot of it just comes down to execution, but I think patience is a large part of it, as well.
"You're using a lot of your imagination, especially when you don't get the exact wind on the practice round days. So you just have to imagine what that ball's going to do.
"I think that physically I'm not going to learn any new shots on Monday through Wednesday this week that I'm going to try and use you over the weekend. I think a lot of the physical's always there. I think more of it is just the preparation."
