By MONTE DUTTON

In Tiger Woods’ heyday, he was rolling thunder. It never surprised me when his body began to fail him. I’ve never seen a golfer come out of cleats like Woods. It was exciting, though.

Scottie Scheffler’s personality reminds me of singer Vince Gill. He doesn’t seem to have that burning desire, though it’s obvious that he does.

While dominating The Open Championship, it looked like he was having fun. Laidback is not a description that usually comes to mind when watching great athletes.

I haven’t swung a club in more than a decade, but I relate to Scheffler, which is of course ridiculous. He makes me want to go to a driving range again.

I used to think I wasn’t old enough to play golf until I was 40. The reason this comparison is ridiculous is that if I played the best round of my life at Royal Portrush, I would shoot 100. My best golf was a matter of pretending I was a pendulum. Relaxed and easy. My best golf occurred when I didn’t care. It was a matter of having fun with friends. It was important to have a balance: (1.) don’t care, but not so much that (2.) I stopped paying attention.

It’s all relative.

Scheffler had a double bogey. His expression was, oh, well, whatever. I didn’t think great athletes could do that. David Pearson, maybe. I remember reading a story when I was young about how one year at Daytona, doctors hooked up all the NASCAR drivers with electrodes that monitored their vital signs while they were practicing. While turning laps, all the other drivers’ heart rates soared up to 130 or so. Pearson could turn laps at 180 mph, and he had a resting heart rate.

That’s how I imagine Scottie Scheffler.

The TV timing on Sunday was perfect, and that is seldom the case. It was all a matter of time zones. I got up, fixed some coffee and a couple of chicken sandwiches, and watched the leaders tee off in Northern Ireland.

At about the time the Open ended, coverage of the NASCAR race at Dover began. When the race was over, I switched to ESPN’s Sunday night baseball. When the game ended, I watched Atlantic Crossing on PBS.

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