Scottie Scheffler continues to hit the ball in addition to anybody from tee to inexperienced, but he stays annoyed along with his efficiency by means of 36 holes at The Gamers.
Why?
His placing.
“Relating to the frustration, yeah, as an illustration, the final two days I felt like I may have scored quite a bit higher,” mentioned Scheffler, who’s at present at 5-under and 6 photographs off the lead.
“The quantity of fine putts I hit that simply went proper across the gap, whether or not or not it’s slight misreads, or I take into consideration my putt there on No. 9, [my caddy] Teddy [Scott] and I had a very good learn on it, turned a little bit left early, got here again to the fitting on the finish. The grain’s going to the fitting, there’s a delicate slope going to the fitting, my ball goes the opposite approach.”
Scheffler had one other strong search for birdie on the par-5 ninth, his final gap of the day, but it surely didn’t drop. Burning edges and failing to transform alternatives has been a standard theme for the World No. 1 in 2025. It echoes what Scheffler needed to endure over the primary two months of 2024, earlier than he switched to a mallet putter forward of final 12 months’s Arnold Palmer Invitational. Scheffler then went on to win that occasion, and eight others throughout his historic season.
“At instances final 12 months these had been the putts that may go in, and the previous couple of weeks seem to be they haven’t been,” Scheffler mentioned.
“However nonetheless doing a number of good issues, hitting a number of good putts and searching ahead to making an attempt to climb the leaderboard over the weekend.”
Scheffler ranks fifth among the many discipline in strokes gained on method however has surprisingly misplaced strokes off the tee on the halfway level. Regardless of that, he has nonetheless given himself loads of probabilities, hitting 27 of 36 greens up to now. However he has made solely 9 birdies.
“I don’t must play excellent golf with a purpose to attempt to win tournaments, and typically I attempt to lean on that a little bit bit after I’m on the market,” Scheffler added.
“However I speak about it quite a bit. Final 12 months was final 12 months. This 12 months’s a very completely different 12 months.”
Scheffler, the two-time defending champion at The Gamers this week, overcame a five-shot deficit on Sunday to win final 12 months. He is aware of he can come again and win once more, however his putter should enhance over the weekend.
The winds are forecasted to blow as much as 30 miles per hour on Saturday, which will likely be an amazing problem, even on the greens.
“The golf course was positively gettable the primary two days,” Scheffler mentioned.
“I wasn’t capable of reap the benefits of it the way in which I’d have hoped to, however yeah, going into tomorrow and Sunday, there will certainly be some alternative there with the situations altering.”
Regardless of not taking part in in addition to he would have preferred, Scheffler nonetheless has an out of doors likelihood to drag off an unthinkable feat: successful The Gamers thrice in a row. It should take a Herculean effort, but when he can get his putter to cooperate for the primary time all season, Scheffler will likely be there Sunday, invoking concern into everybody else within the discipline.
Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Enjoying Via. Observe him on X @jack_milko.
