For a second week running, Scottie Scheffler recovered from an underwhelming first round to come agonisingly close to winning on the PGA Tour.
Scottie Scheffler appeared to have next to no chance heading into Sunday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
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The only reason you would back the world number one to still contend was the fact that he produced a stunning round to come within one shot of making a playoff at the WM Phoenix Open last week.
History did repeat itself at Pebble Beach. Scheffler posted a 63 in the last round to briefly take the clubhouse lead at 20 under par.
Scottie Scheffler discusses shots he would love to have back after the final round at Pebble Beach
It was not quite enough to win. Scheffler did make three eagles in one round for the first time in his PGA Tour career. However, there were also some mistakes on the back nine as he pushed to make birdies.
And with that, Scheffler picked out a couple of key moments when asked if there were any shots that he would have loved to have had back.
“Yeah, I think in rounds of golf there’s always a few. Hit some nice shots today. I mean, maybe a few I would have just played a little differently,” he said.
“That iron shot I hit into 12 I hit really nice, I hit it exactly how I wanted to. The wind was swirling out there and it was one we just got the wrong gust. I mean, the wedge shot I hit into 15 was exactly how I wanted to hit it, and we haven’t really seen many bounces this week and that one bounced over the green. Little stuff like that where throughout 18 holes of golf, you’re going to get good and bad breaks. Overall, did a lot of good stuff.”
Scheffler reflects on another slow start after nearly winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
Scheffler understandably has mixed feelings about his start to the season. He has not finished lower than third in his three starts this year.
But he has opened up with rounds of 73 and 72 in the last two events. That has meant that Scheffler has been left with a mountain to climb in his push to add to his American Express victory.
He has very nearly climbed that mountain on two occasions now. And with that, Scheffler believes that he can take a number of positives from how he has fought back.
“A frustrating start to both of the last couple weeks. But I think these are some of the weeks when you look back, I’m very proud of sticking with it, not giving up even when I felt like things were going against me this week. Just kept fighting, kept trying to hit shots, kept trying to execute. Ted did a really good job of keeping me in it. Ultimately probably come up a few shots short, but yeah, just proud of how I fought all week,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s just scoring stuff. We came around here the first round and I looked at Teddy about the 15th, 16th hole and I feel like I’m doing kind of good and I’m like 10 shots back. It’s a funny game. Sometimes things go your way and sometimes things don’t. Today’s the day where I holed a lot of putts from 10, 20 feet. On greens like this there’s a lot of suspense when the ball’s rolling up to the hole. The beginning of the week those putts weren’t falling and they all decided to go in today, so it’s just a funny game.”
Scheffler’s rivals will be hoping that he does not work out how to make faster starts any time soon.
He has somehow found another gear compared to last year – even when he has spent much of the opening day in neutral.
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