After so many highs this season, Scottie Scheffler makes altitude adjustment
Sign up now: Get the biggest sports news in your inbox
Scottie Scheffler was asked about acclimating to the altitude, and he credited a family vacation in July in Telluride, Colorado, which he said is “a little bit higher” than Castle Rock.
PHOTO: AFP
CASTLE ROCK – No obstacle in 2024 seems too large for Scottie Scheffler, the world No. 1 with six wins on the PGA Tour including the Masters, plus his gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
This week, however, he is in the mountains of Colorado.
The BMW Championship, the PGA Tour’s second event of the FedExCup play-offs, will be played in thin air at a tour-record 8,130 yards at Castle Pines Golf Club in Castle Rock.
Scheffler was asked on Aug 21 about acclimatising to the altitude, and he credited a family vacation in July in Telluride, Colorado, which he said is “a little bit higher” than Castle Rock. Telluride is 2,668m above sea level, while Castle Pines checks in at 1,930m.
“The elevation got to me a little bit,” the American admitted. “So I’m kind of glad I got it out of the way then because I have struggled with it from time to time.”
He referenced his days on the Korn Ferry Tour, with tournaments in Colorado and “pretty extreme elevation” in Bogota, Colombia (nearly 2,700m).
“I remember sleeping really bad the first few nights,” Scheffler said. “You wake up in the middle of the night feeling like you can’t breathe and just weird stuff.
“But I felt like that experience playing at a little bit higher altitude has kind of helped me adjust to this week. I was working out in the gym and I was definitely getting out of breath a lot faster than I would at home, but I feel like I’m doing a good job of getting adjusted.
“And then the number stuff is something that we’ve had a system that has worked decent over the past few years.”
The “number stuff” is tracking and analysing the movement of a golf ball in flight through a portable device. Scheffler said that he and his caddie Ted Scott do not change the settings on the device regardless of their location.
“Teddy has a way that I’m not going to divulge because I think we do a really good job kind of no matter what the conditions are,” he added. “That’s something that I rely on him pretty heavily for.”
Shots are expected to travel farther this week than at a more typical altitude on tour.
“So this week he’s doing a lot of the maths,” Scheffler said of Scott.
“We have our numbers and how far the ball goes here, and we still have our numbers at home. So we have ways we’re trying to do it... just to where I know that I can get comfortable with the shot we’re trying to hit. There is a lot of work that goes into it, so it’s a pretty big adjustment for us.”
Ludvig Aberg, making his BMW Championship debut, also noted the differences the players will face.
“It presents some challenges a golf course at sea level doesn’t,” said the Swede, who told his caddie Joe Skovron they are unlikely to have conversations while walking up hills – they will instead be focusing on breathing. REUTERS
