What was ‘unbelievable’ about Scottie Scheffler’s second round at the Genesis Invitational as one part of his game is labelled ‘really bad’

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For the likes of Davis Thompson and Denny McCarthy, it will feel incredibly ominous heading into the weekend at the Genesis Invitational with Scottie Scheffler sat in second place.

Scottie Scheffler was in an unfamiliar position after a frustrating back nine on Sunday at the WM Phoenix Open last week, with some doubts starting to creep in about whether the world number one would be able to get close to replicating his achievements in 2024.

But some of those doubts have been put to bed with how the 28-year-old has started the Genesis Invitational. Scheffler is one shot off the lead ahead of the third round after posting scores of 70 and 67 at Torrey Pines.

Scheffler did not make a single bogey during the second round. But that is only part of the reason the two-time Masters champion managed to stun Rick Gehman.

What was unbelievable about Scottie Scheffler’s second round at the Genesis Invitational

Speaking on The First Cut podcast, Gehman suggested that he could not quite believe how well Scheffler scored on Friday in California – simply due to how bad he had been off the tee throughout the day.

“He was pretty bad with the driver. He was missing everything left. He was escaping every situation. He was making birdie from places you cannot make birdie, he was making pars from places you cannot make par,” he said.

“I was flicking through his shot link, and he is the only dot in some of these places. And if he’s not the only dot in some of these places, he’s the only blue dot in some of these places, indicating a par when every other dot around him is black indicating a bogey. This was unbelievable escape abilities all day long.”

Scheffler the best player in the field in one area on Friday at Torrey Pines

It is remarkable just how poor Scheffler was off the tee when you consider how good his long game was throughout last season.

He hit just five of 14 fairways throughout the round, while he actually lost strokes to the field both off the tee and when hitting approaches into the green.

It should perhaps concern his potential rivals that the other aspects of Scheffler’s game were almost as good as they have ever been. He was actually first in the field for strokes gained around the green, while he was inside the top 10 with the putter.

Scheffler may be yet to hit the heights of last year so far this season, but all of the pieces of the jigsaw appear to be there.

And it would be no surprise to see him put it all together around the time that thoughts really start to turn to Augusta National and the first major of the year.