Scottie Scheffler’s game is just fine, despite recent questions about his form.
The world No. 1 fired a bogey-free 5-under 67 in Round 3 of The Players on Saturday after barely making the cut. That solid round helped erase the memory of his opening 72-73 start, suggesting his brief struggles might be behind him.
“I was a little sharper today than I was the first two days,” Scheffler said. “I felt like I was swinging it better each day of the tournament. Today hit a few more fairways and was able to give myself a few more looks for birdie.”
But here’s the real question: Is there actually anything wrong with Scheffler’s game? He’s ranked No. 1 in the world by a massive margin and hasn’t finished worse than T-25 since last August.
Scheffler started 2026 with a win at The American Express in January. Since then, he’s gradually slipped down leaderboards due to slow starts: T-3 at the WM Phoenix Open, T-4 at Pebble Beach, T-12 at Genesis, and most recently, T-24 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational where he couldn’t break 70 and made multiple bogeys each round.
The scrutiny only exists because of how dominant he’s been. Since 2024, the 29-year-old has won 16 times worldwide.
The questions reached a boiling point during Tuesday’s pre-tournament press conference when Scheffler addressed expectations.
“I think, when you look at the perspective from the media, the media is always trying to create a story,” Scheffler said. “Which can be a great thing. I think that’s part of your job. But when it comes to my golf game and my expectations of myself, my expectations all are based around what I want for me mentally on the golf course and being committed to what I can do, and controlling that aspect. And so far throughout this season I’ve been really good in some spots and then some other spots I feel like I can improve in terms of my commitment to the shot.”
One area of focus has been his driver. Scheffler switched to TaylorMade’s Qi4D model at the API last week but returned to the Qi10 this week at TPC Sawgrass.
“How do I feel about the driver? Good,” he said simply after Saturday’s round.
The standard Scheffler has set is so high that anything short of contending on Sunday raises eyebrows. The reality is that every player’s game has natural fluctuations.
After his solid Saturday performance, someone asked whether he found anything during Thursday’s range session where he hit balls in pouring rain.
“Did I find anything? I think that would imply that I was lost, which is not the case.”
Sitting at T-27 as of publishing, Scheffler likely won’t make a Sunday charge to win his third Players title—which would tie Jack Nicklaus for most wins in tournament history.
“Not unless it starts blowing like 30 miles an hour,” he laughed when asked about his comeback chances.
Instead, Scheffler’s probably focused on that shot-by-shot improvement as April approaches, bringing with it major championship season.
Will we see him tee it up somewhere between now and the Masters?
“Undecided.”
