Scottie Scheffler’s record under-par streak comes to a shocking end

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In his remarkable, record-setting run on the PGA Tour, Scottie Scheffler hadn’t signed a scorecard of even par or worse in 28 consecutive rounds. He hadn’t suffered a double bogey in 218 holes. In his home state, the Texan was scuffling a bit on his back nine on Friday in the Texas Children’s Houston Open, but a tap-in for bogey at the 18th still would give the World No. 1 a one-under 69 and put him three shots off the lead of Tony Finau.

What happened next was inexplicable for a guy normally as cool as Scheffler is.

Seemingly worn out from a tough day in the wind at Memorial Park Golf Course, and maybe miffed that his greenside bunker shot at 18 touched the lip for what would have been a spectacular birdie, Scheffler definitely looked cranky when his five-foot par putt also caught the lip without going in. And that’s when he let his annoyance get the best of him.

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On a bogey putt that ShotLink said was less than two feet—23 inches!—Scheffler did line it up, but he pushed his ball slightly enough that it—yes—caught the right edge of the cup and spun out. It added up to a double-bogey 6, only Scheffler’s second double of the entire season.

With that awful finish, the under-par streak was halted, and far worse in Scheffler’s mind, he dropped four back of Finau, who took advantage of more benign early conditions to shoot eight-under 62 to get to stand alone at nine-under.

In a class move afterward, Scheffler stopped to talk in the interview area, and he threw in a bit of sarcasm when asked if he suffered a “little lapse” on the last putt. “No,” Scheffler replied, “I do that a lot. You watch me all the time, so that happens a lot to me.”

More seriously, Scheffler said, “Frustrating lapse in judgment there. You never really know what’s going to be up there around the cup on 18. Yeah, just hit something and knocked the second one offline. Felt like I hit a good putt on the first one, maybe went just barely through the break, so obviously it was a bit frustrating hitting a good putt and it not going in. Second one I guess just hit a little fast and didn’t see a spike mark there.”

Not to second guess the big guy, but it sure looked like just a careless bad stroke more than anything.

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Maybe the only upside is that Scheffler’s streak of rounds at par or better is alive at 29. He’s got a long way to go to catch the record holder—Tiger Woods, at 52.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com