Scottie Scheffler is far from being out of contention and retaining his RBC Heritage title this week, with the world number one going into the final round four shots off the lead at Harbour Town.
Once again, Scottie Scheffler seems to have been unable to put his foot on his accelerator when he has had the chance. The 28-year-old is still without a win on the PGA Tour in 2025 despite putting himself in the mix on a number of occasions.
In fact, he went into the week off the back of a second place finish at the Texas Children’s Houston Open and a fourth place finish at The Masters. If you were being extremely critical, you could argue that Scheffler rarely looked in the mix to win either.
A strong start at Harbour Town has hardly been built upon. Scheffler followed his opening round of 64 with rounds of 70 and 68 at Hilton Head. He is now in a tie for seventh and four shots behind Si-woo Kim.
When Scottie Scheffler felt he let Russell Henley down as they are paired together at the RBC Heritage
On the plus side for Scheffler, he will have an opportunity to put some pressure on those at the top of the leaderboard. He tees off half an hour before Kim and Andrew Novak. And it may help that he has had some success alongside his playing partner for the final round.
Scheffler is paired with Russell Henley. Together, they won two of their three matches at last year’s Presidents Cup, including securing a crucial point on Saturday afternoon as Jim Furyk‘s men started to take charge of the event again.
Some may have expected Scheffler to be the one to help Henley given the latter’s lack of experience on that stage. However, speaking after they came from three down to beat Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im on the penultimate day, Scheffler suggested that it was Henley who stole the show.
“I’ve got to give a ton of credit to Russ. I felt like I messed up the beginning of the match. I felt like I was on a different planet for the first six holes, really the first five holes. Starting on No. 6 I hit a good shot in there, and I don’t think Russ missed a shot today. I can’t think of one shot I thought he could have hit better. Props to my guy here; he’s a great partner and I’m just proud to be out here with him,” he said.
“Well, I’ve got a tough partner. I really do. Sometimes out there, that’s what’s great about team golf, you don’t get to experience too much. He really picked me up because I felt like I was letting him down early in the match. I really was,” he added.
“For him to bounce back and play great and execute shots when we needed them — I think the way we finished off the match was really special and hopefully was some good momentum for our team.”
Alarming Scottie Scheffler stat from Harbour Town shows the work which still lies ahead
There did not appear to be a huge weakness within Scheffler’s game last year. The worst part of his game statistically was his putting, and that was better than average on the PGA Tour.
But he is just missing that metronomic magic right now which helped him dominate last year. And there have been one or two worrying signs around Harbour Town.
Scheffler was 17th on tour for strokes gained around the green last year. He is currently sat just outside the top 50 this time around.
And according to the PGA Tour website, he has already lost more than two shots to the field around the green this week. That includes more than one stroke in round three alone – leaving him down in 63rd.
Scheffler probably is being harshly judged because of what happened last season. But it is surprising that he has not yet found that top gear once again in 2025.
He is going to need to find it very quickly if he hopes to secure his first win of the year this weekend.
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