Scottie Scheffler’s strokes gained putting and strokes gained approach stats on day one of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am were more befitting of a player struggling to keep his card than those of the current world number one golfer.
Scheffler won the American Express in his first start of the season, and then finished in a tie for third at the WM Phoenix Open last week.
However, he began the tournament in Phoenix with a poor round of 73 and he was nowhere near his best for the next three days, despite the fact that he still managed to score well.
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The concerning thing for Scheffler is that last week’s opening round in Phoenix was clearly not a one-off.
Scheffler’s iron play was incredibly poor at Pebble Beach on Thursday. In fact, he was so poor with his approaches into the greens that it looked like an impersonator had taken his place in the field.
His putting was nowhere near good enough either. Sure, the Poa annua greens at Pebble Beach are notoriously difficult to putt on, but the 29-year-old struggled more than most with the putter in his hands.
Scottie Scheffler stats from day one at Pebble Beach were a big concern
The current world number one posted a round of even-par 72 on Thursday at Pebble Beach, as he failed to take advantage of the immaculate scoring conditions on the Monterey Peninsula.
The reason for his poor score was his putting and iron play.
On the greens, he lost 2.149 strokes to the field – only eight players lost more strokes to the field in that specific category.
The man from Dallas, Texas, has vastly improved his putting over the last two years.
In the 2022/23 season, he ranked 162nd in strokes gained putting and he improved to 77th in 2024.
Then, in 2025, Scheffler ranked 22nd in strokes gained on the greens. However, his performance on day one at Pebble Beach was a throwback to the old days when he struggled persistently with his putter.
Aside from his poor putting, Scheffler’s woefully inept iron play on day one at Pebble Beach was a real shock to see for those who’ve watched him consistently over the past two years.
He lost 2.341 shots on the field with his approach play – a number that was bettered by 72 golfers in the 80-player field.
He was quite clearly nowhere near his best and that is what makes his post-round comments so concerning…
Scottie Scheffler’s bizarre comments after day one at Pebble Beach
Scheffler has now carded consecutive opening rounds of par or worse for the first time on the PGA Tour since 2020.
After his round of 72, the 29-year-old addressed the media, and he responded when asked to sum up the current state of his golf game.
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“I feel like typically I’m good at scoring and today I felt like I didn’t score at all,“ Scheffler said.
“Like anything that kind of went wrong seemed to be going that direction and I just felt like I scored poorly. I actually feel like I’m playing pretty well, just one of those days.“
Considering how poor his putting and approach play stats were, his comments after his round mean that he’s either delusional or that his standards have dropped.
I don’t believe it’s either of those, so perhaps he was just deflecting, trying to take some of the pressure off his shoulders ahead of the second round on Friday.
Despite how poor Scheffler was on day one at Pebble Beach, he will be expected to go out and shoot a round in the mid-60s at Spyglass Hill on day two because that’s just what he does.
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