When you are the top player in the world in a given sport, you always have a huge target on your back with lofty expectations. When a highly-ranked player underperforms or appears more human with a rare bad day or round,

Scottie Scheffler, winner of three of his last four starts including the PGA and Memorial, shot 3-over-par in the first round of the U.S. Open.

OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) — Scottie Scheffler kept coming back to the same answer when asked in different ways how a day that began with optimism at the U.S. Open turned into a 5 1/2-hour slog that left him well off the front page of the leaderboard.

By Frank Pingue OAKMONT, Pennsylvania (Reuters) -Overnight U.S. Open leader J.J. Spaun got his second round underway on Friday at Oakmont Country Club where pre-tournament favourite and world number one Scottie Scheffler was unable to play his way into contention.

Sometimes, even Superman struggles. Scottie Scheffler doesn’t wear a cape ... He entered this week’s U.S. Open at Oakmont having won three times in his previous four starts, including the ...

Scheffler remained atop the PGA Tour FedEx Cup season race with 700 points (giving him 3,500, 834 over Rory McIlroy) and took over first on the PGA Tour money list with the $4 million first-place check in the PGA Tour Signature event.

J.J. Spaun finishes the first round of the U.S. Open with a one-shot lead after Scottie Scheffler struggles with a round of 73.

He is eight shots off first-round leader JJ Spaun, who tamed the brutal Oakmont course widely described as the hardest in the game, with a blemish-free 66. The American sits one shot clear of Thriston Lawrence. Sungjae Im, Brooks Koepka and Si Woo Kim are a shot further back on two-under-par.