It is more than 12 months since Scottie Scheffler went three events without winning – with the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational being his first victory of last season.
Scottie Scheffler‘s preparations for the 2025 season were somewhat derailed after he sustained a hand injury over Christmas which ruled him out for several weeks. Nevertheless, he has certainly threatened to pick up where he left off last year.
Scheffler has finished in the top 10 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational, while he was just outside that for the Arnold Palmer Invitational – despite never really looking like he was in contention to win at Bay Hill.
It really feels like a matter of time before Scheffler does win again. The world number one clinched nine victories worldwide in 2024. Meanwhile, he has won the Players Championship in each of the last two years.
Scottie Scheffler yet to hit top gear after another reasonable finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational
And of course, Scheffler has won the Masters in two of the last three seasons. But it does appear that he is not playing quite as well as he can do.
Speaking on RickRunGood ahead of the Players Championship, Rick Gehman noted that Scheffler is not at his very best from tee to green.
He did however, insist that many of the signs are still extremely positive.
“Before I even pull up his golfer profile, I’m just going to take you straight to the trends tool here and you’re going to see something that I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen this for Scottie Scheffler – the last 36 rounds, he is losing about two-thirds of a stroke from tee to green to himself. So the way that this trends tool works is it looks at everybody’s 100 round baseline, you put in any number of rounds that you want and it compares the golfer to their baselines, shows you in which ways they are trending. And I don’t remember seeing a time – I guess it was coming, he was having a historically great season – in which Scottie Scheffler was losing to himself,” he said.
“Now, he is losing to himself right now, he’s still one of the best trending players. But I thought that that was noteworthy to see, that even though he’s put together some really good tee to green numbers, it is actually not as good as we have seen from him. I am not at all concerned about Scottie Scheffler. I think there are still a lot of things that he needs to work through. I think that he is missing left off the tee more frequently than he used to, I think the short putts are still a little bit of an issue, and with that being said, he’s finished ninth, 25th, third and 11th in 2025 after that hand procedure that he had done. The ball-striking numbers are absolutely insane, he’s got one of the best short games in the world, we just need him to not be a minus five with the putter.”
How good Scottie Scheffler’s approach play was in 2024 outlined by one scary statistic
As Gehman notes, it was almost inevitable that Scheffler would have something of a dip. Ultimately, if his 2024 season is a sign of what is to come, the 28-year-old will indeed put himself alongside some of the greatest to ever play the game by the time his career comes to an end.
He has one finish worse than 11th place in four starts so far – and that was a 25th place result at the WM Phoenix Open, where he was an outside contender until the back nine on Sunday at TPC Scottsdale.
Scheffler’s approach play was frightening in 2024. Unsurprisingly, he was the best player on tour in that area. And the gap between himself and second place Tony Finau was larger than the gap between Finau and 31st place Chan Kim.
Ultimately, he looks to be knocking on the door without finding his best form. It is an ominous sign for those hoping to close the gap to Scheffler in 2025.
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