[Photo: Emilee Chinn]
It started off so well. On Thursday, Scottie Scheffler finished sixth of 156 players in the statistic called strokes gained/putting, a measurement of how well he performed against the rest of the field. When he thrives on the greens, the results are very predictable, and even on a day of modest ball-striking, he finished tied for the lead.
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A day later, everything collapsed. That day, he finished 124th of 156 in the same state, losing a stroke-and-a-half to the field, and it got worse on Saturday, when he missed a series of short birdie putts and slipped to 73rd in SG/putting of the 82 players who made the cut, losing enough strokes that it went down as his worst day on the greens in almost a year. Still, he was just five shots off the lead, and at a stingy course like Aronimink, nobody would have been surprised if he made a charge. Instead, he lost strokes to the field once again on Sunday, and came in at two-under.
It’s one thing to have a bad week on the greens, but it’s another when you finish in the top 10 in every ball-striking category – at last check, seventh off the tee, fifth in approach, fourth in tee-to-green – and ended just four shots behind the leader (at the time). That drifts into the realm of “agonising”, and prompts more than a few thoughts of what might have been.
Scheffler didn’t speak to the media after his final round, but his thoughts after Saturday’s difficulties weren’t particularly illuminating.
“I hit a lot of good putts that are kind of right around the edge,” he said then. “It’s kind of like a little bit of a dice roll at times when you have so much slope and so much wind… if I continue to do what I’m doing and hole a few more putts, then I think I’ll be in a good spot when tomorrow ends.”
After Friday’s performance, he hit on a similar theme, speaking on the difficulty of holing putts, “especially when you have big slopes and wind.”
He spent some time on the putting green when his round ended on Saturday, but if he found anything there, it didn’t carry over into Sunday. In all, Scheffler’s tournament was reminiscent of his performance at last year’s US Open, where his putting lagged behind his ball striking, leading to a T-7 finish. The difference is more exaggerated this time, with Scheffler losing more than a stroke to the field, but the result will be roughly the same.
More than Oakmont, it perhaps strikes some of the same notes we saw from Scheffler in earlier stages of his career, before he began working with Phil Kenyon in late 2023 and went on his generational tear. The good news is that all this feels far more temporary – don’t forget that he won a major both before and after his Oakmont struggles a year ago – and without more evidence against him, it looks like an anomalous performance that came at a bad time.
Still, as the final round wore on and the leaders hovered near six and seven-under, you couldn’t shake the feeling that Scheffler should at least be among them, and maybe even beyond them. Judging him that way is a mark of his greatness, and the expectations that come with it, and even if it’s fair, it’s a bit ridiculous. That’s how good he is, though, and knowing Scheffler’s own famous competitiveness, he’ll be asking the same question that’s on our minds: when the Wanamaker Trophy is hoisted on Sunday evening in Philadelphia, should it have been his hands holding the cup?
