PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Scottie Scheffler isn’t worried about his game and doesn’t think anyone else should be either.
Despite finishing tied for 24th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week — mediocre only by the highest of standards — and losing nearly three strokes to the field with his approach play, the world’s No. 1 golfer said Tuesday at the Players Championship that he doesn’t measure his success by the week-to-week results.
“If you flipped my season around and it was like, OK, I finished 24th and 12th, and like third and fourth, and a win [coming into this week], would your question be the same if I was coming from third, fourth, win?” Scheffler said when asked how he avoids frustration when he doesn’t play as well. “My point is, it’s like your expectations of me are living week by week. My expectations of myself are almost more shot by shot.”
After kicking off the season with a win at the American Express, Scheffler got off to slow starts at his next three tournaments and was still able to notch two top-fives and one top-15 finish. Last week at Bay Hill, however, he didn’t shoot a single round in the 60s.
It was also the first time since the Players in 2022 that Scheffler lost that many shots to the field with his approach play. Scheffler ranks 88th on the PGA Tour this season in strokes gained: approach after ranking first in that statistic for three straight years.
“My view of stats always typically lines up with my feel,” he said. “My feel is what I trust the most. If I feel like I can hit really good iron shots, then I’m not going to be too worried about my iron game. If I step over the ball, and I don’t feel like I can hit a really good shot, that’s when I am going to start to worry.”
Scheffler called himself his biggest critic and admitted he wasn’t hitting the ball as sharply as he wanted to at Bay Hill, especially during the first three rounds. But the four-time major winner downplayed any notion of being concerned with his recent form and results.
“When you look at the perspective from the media, the media is always trying to create a story. Which can be a great thing; I think that’s part of your job,” Scheffler said. “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 as 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.”
This week, Scheffler has a chance to be the first player ever to win the Players three times. He said Tuesday that he thinks TPC Sawgrass suits his game because he likes to hit various types of shots and at various trajectories, which this particular set of 18 holes demands.
“That’s something that I’ve always enjoyed about the game of golf is being able to try to curve the ball in different directions and hit different spins,” Scheffler said. “And this golf course I think kind of brings it out of us. It almost forces you into hitting different types of shots.”
