Scottie Scheffler criticised after being late to 1st tee at Tour Championship

Sky Sports Golf's Paul McGinley has criticised Scottie Scheffler for turning up late for his third round tee time with Patrick Cantlay at the Tour Championship. 

Scheffler rocked up on the 1st tee while his playing partner Cantlay was already about to tee off. 

While he was not later than his official 2.38pm tee time, and therefore did not get penalised, he did cut it mighty fine. 

If a player arrives on the tee between 0 and 5 minutes past their official tee time, they receive the general penalty of two strokes.

After five minutes is a DQ. 

Sky Sports claimed Scheffler arrived on the tee with 30 seconds to spare. 

Cantlay teed off and sent his drive into the first cut of rough.

Scheffler then proceeded to drive way right into the deeper rough. 

He was forced to lay up in the fairway on the brutal 521-yard par-4.

Scheffler flicked in a wedge to 20 feet but he would miss the par putt left of the hole.

As he tapped in for bogey, it was then that former European Ryder Cup captain McGinley hit out at Scheffler's lack of preparation. 

"Would you put it down to being late on the tee?" questioned McGinley after seeing Scheffler make bogey on the 1st.

"There's no doubt he was late, there was hardly any time there to get settled and by the time he shook hands they were announcing Patrick Cantlay on the tee. 

"So much of this game is about concentration and being prepared and being in the right mental mindset."

Some golf fans had some fun with the situation by claiming Scheffler knew he could be a tad late given he was playing alongside Cantlay.

To compound the drama on the 1st tee, the PGA Tour announcer read Scheffler's name wrong over the microphone. 

Despite a big build up listing all of Scheffler's biggest recent achievements, the announcer called him Scottie Schauffler. 

A mix between a Scheffler and Schauffele you could argue. 

Golf social media could not believe the mishap given Scheffler's status in the game. 

Scheffler then went on to make bogey on the par-3 2nd to fall further off the pace.

Sky Sports Golf's Henni Zuel added: "To Paul's point, maybe arriving late to the 1st tee has contributed to his wobble of a start."

To Scheffler's credit he did recover with a bounceback birdies on the par-4 3rd and par-4 4th. 

The four-time major champion leads many stats on the PGA Tour and one of them is the bounceback statistic. 

Scheffler started the third round five shots off the pace. 

Despite leading the FedEx Cup just about all season, the points all reset ahead of this week's $40m Tour Championship.

There was also no adjusted handicap start at the Tour Championship like previous seasons. 

The winner of the Tour Championship wins the FedEx Cup and a huge first prize of $10m. 

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