CROMWELL, Conn. — The language is filled with quotes to suggest how difficult the game of golf has always been: Frustrating, humbling, unpredictable.

Playing 18 holes, Mark Twain once opined in our own backyard, “Is a good walk spoiled.”

It’s not supposed to be as easy as Scottie Scheffler makes it look. Not even the No.1 player in the world is supposed to be as consistently good as Scheffler.

But here he was Thursday, back at the TPC River Highlands, back on top of his game, making another round of golf look as easy and matter-of-fact as that stroll in the park. Three birdies on the first four holes, four on the first six, Scheffler made the turn at 30, then eagled 13, birdied 15. Austin Eckroat was in the clubhouse with a round of 62, the best round of his career before Scheffler teed off at 1:45 p.m. ET.

By 5 p.m., Scheffler overtook him and got the lead without neither a bogey nor a bead of sweat in sight. Scheffler’s playing partner, J.J. Spaun, who was coming off the week of a lifetime, winning the U.S. Open, came back to earth with a round of 3-over par 73. What some would call once in a lifetime, what some would consider a master class, was, for Scheffler, Thursday at the Travelers.

Not until the 17th hole, as the wind picked up, did Scheffler have to scramble, missing the fairway with his tee shot, putting from beyond the edge of the green to leave himself a 14 1/2-foot putt for par. He two-putted, and gave back a stroke to finish with a 62, matching Eckroat atop the leader board at 8-under.

“Did a lot of good stuff,” Scheffler said, after signing his card. “Felt like the conditions were challenging, especially late in the day, but I did some good things. I was able to hole some nice putts as well.”

Aw, c’mon, Scottie. Really?

Scheffler won the Travelers last year, one of nine wins in a season for the ages. At the River Highlands he shot 65-64-64-65 and took the playoff over Tom Kim. He shot a 63 in 2023, so this was his best round in Cromwell. Other than that bit of minutia, this was pretty routine for Scheffler and that, in and of itself, makes it so extraordinary.

“I got hot pretty early in the round and got off to a nice start,” he said. “And then I really kept the momentum through basically hole 15 and then I had one mess-up there on 17, but overall it was a pretty good day..”

This course each year generates discussion on its degree of difficulty. Keegan Bradley set the record in ’23, winning it with 23 under par. On Thursday, Bradley, the U.S. Ryder Cup captain, finished his round 6-under, matching his partner Rory McIlroy, then took his children to watch Scheffler putt for par on the 18th green. Bradley had a smile on his face, a smile that might’ve been saying, “We’ve got this guy, and they don’t.”

Scheffler, with his caddy Ted Scott, on the bag for three Bubba Watson wins at the Travelers, snuck in an occasional smile, but played the day with cool precision. As he intimated when he got to town, the course isn’t really easy, it’s just that the pros are so good.

On 13, he hit a dead-solid perfect shot off the tee to set himself up for the eagle that made his day.

“I mean, on 13, that 3-iron I hit in there was really nice.” he said. “It was pretty much exactly what I was trying to do. It was kind of one where I had to hit it really solid in order to get it there with the water short, and I just did pretty much exactly what I wanted to and it felt nice. Hit it really solid and really straight, just barely right of the pin, and kept a nice flat flight, get it to go through the wind, and it was good. Well struck.”

That, Scheffler said, was the only shot of the day that was exactly right. Everything else fell into the “pretty good” category. When it’s better than that, Scheffler does what he did at the Byron Nelson Classic, opening with a 61, finishing 31 under par.

“To be fair, I won by a significant margin,” Scheffler said, “so to call it 30-under I think would be a stretch. I could have won it at 23-under, and also the PGA, same thing. I maybe won at 10, but it was still a pretty sizable cushion.”

On some level, Scheffler was more willing to express pride with his performance at the U.S. Open, where he finished 4-over par and tied for seventh at Pennsylvania’s very difficult Oakmont CC.

“The way I swung it the first couple rounds was pretty poor,” he said. “I mean, I was not getting the ball in play. I don’t know if you saw much of it, but it wasn’t very pretty. But I was very proud of the way I stayed in the tournament and I still gave myself a chance to win. That gives me a lot of confidence going forward that I could — especially on a golf course like Oakmont where you know you have to get the ball in play, and I wasn’t able to do that in the beginning of the tournament, and to hang in there, flirt with the cut line on Friday, have a good finish to my round Friday. (Then) kind of bounce back, get myself back in the tournament to give myself an opportunity to win was pretty good.

“I gained some confidence from that. It’s also just good reflection knowing that it’s really important for me just to stay in it mentally, and I felt like last week was, oddly enough, as good as I’ve been mentally on the course throughout the season. As much as I want to win every tournament and play perfect golf, it’s just not sustainable.”

If Scheffler’s confidence is at a high point, who knows where he will finish the Travelers? It’s not really this easy, no golfer is perfect; no golfer is great every day. But Scheffler, 28, is a close as it gets right now, and probably has another decade of peak performance in front of him. Maybe it’s not perfection, but the excellence is historic — and the weekend is just beginning. Just savor it.

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