PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – It was telling that Scottie Scheffler, 12 shots behind the lead, finished with a fist pump Friday.
Scheffler’s seven-footer for par dove to right. It hit the edge. It fell to the bottom. And the world number 1, full of faith and relief, went into the weekend, some two touchdowns behind leader Marco Penge, but with two quarters to play.
The putt told a story about the day, about the course, about the man. But most of all it ended with a strange afternoon that started with an even stranger question:
What is Scottie Scheffler doing in last place?!
Scheffler’s journey to last place was more complicated than bad golf. When a rain-delayed day finally halted play midway through the first round, Scheffler was only halfway through his first 18 at the Genesis. The horn sounded about a half hour after Scheffler made double bogey at No. 8 and just minutes after bogey at No. 10. At the time, Scheffler was five over par, T71 in a field of 72, and stayed there from sundown Thursday to sundown Friday. Scheffler knows the feeling of sleeping on a leash. This time he was sleeping on the anti-lead. Don’t beat anyone. Foreign.
I came to see Scheffler early Friday morning, curious to read if there was something seriously wrong with the best golfer in the world (unlikely) or if he was paving the way for another exciting comeback (very likely). The 7am restart meant it was a sparse crowd, probably as much due to the cold as the early hour (42 degrees by my count, probably colder in the damp dark of the Riviera lowlands, an absolute no-go for a fair weather fan). Scheffler wore a white Nike winter hat over a white Nike baseball hat. He was wearing a sweater and a cardigan that he took on and off, as he always does. It was a muted scene, but pleasant; everyone in the coffee-drinking crowd seemed happy that they had decided to brave the elements. It’s special to see the best golfer in the world playing on one of the best courses in the world, along with just a handful of diehards banded together. Even if he’s in last place. Maybe special when he is in last place.
Scheffler was no doubt on the grounds in the wee hours of the morning, warming up his swing, his body and his mind. By comparison, as someone who can barely function in the world, I misjudged traffic, struggled to find the right parking spot, and barely made it onto the track when play resumed.
When I saw Scheffler for the first time, he had just hit the toughest tee shot on the property, driven down the awkward 12th and knocked down one 300 yards down the left side of the fairway. He hit an uncharacteristic approach, missing the green left with a wedge, but hitting an eight-footer for par, which turned out to be the start of something good. His next hole – broken driver, wedge at 8 feet, first birdie of the week – moved him from last place. I didn’t expect him to come back.
To prove my point, Scheffler also threw a 20-footer for birdie on No. 14 to improve to three over par. And then he made a 6-foot par on No. 15. On Thursday, he had missed several short putts. This seemed to be another man.
That’s what’s interesting: Thursday Scheffler for the past three weeks has been a different guy. A strong finish to this first round still only put a nice bow on what had been his third mediocre opening session in a row. Scheffler started the WM Phoenix Open with a 73. He opened the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with a 72. Both efforts placed him in the bottom half of those respective rankings. And now he had only rallied for 74 in an uneventful display at Riviera?
It’s fun to watch Scheffler dominate, but this routine was arguably more interesting. It’s shocking to watch Scheffler dig a hole for himself on Thursday — and it’s riveting to watch him climb his way out. If it wasn’t against his whole way of being, you’d think he did it on purpose, giving the leaders a ten-stroke lead just to make things interesting later. He roared back to TPC Scottsdale, 65-67-64, to finish one shot outside of a playoff. He roared back to Pebble, 66-67-63, to finish two shots outside of a playoff. Overnight at Riviera, Scheffler was eleven shots off the lead and didn’t beat anyone. He was still among the betting favorites.
When he seemed to be expecting another comeback, I studied Scheffler for some kind of tell – something that seemed different on Friday, something that had him playing his first ten holes at five over par and his last eight holes at two under par. I came up mostly blank. The difference I saw could be attributed to the weather and conditions, plus a few putts, and the vagaries of a complex sport. He was less visibly frustrated on Friday, but that’s hardly a revelation; he didn’t miss any five-footers. If Scheffler is tense, you’ll know it. As he said to a reporter at his press conference on Tuesday, grinning:
“You’ve played golf before, right? Yeah, it’s frustrating.”
But Scheffler still leaves you with a strong personal impression. His intensity is striking. That doesn’t mean white knuckles and clenched jaws. It means a 30-second, full-focus conversation with caddy Ted Scott before choosing the right shot, even 10 shots off the lead. It means a complete reset before the next shot. One thing he borrowed from Tiger Woods is his dedication to commitment. There is no pack-it-in option.
More Scheffler, from before the tournament: “I may not be the flashiest player, but I feel like my mind has always been my biggest tool, and I just try to use that to my advantage.”
That much is clear.
After a short break, the trio of Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Si Woo Kim headed to the first tee to begin their second round. When the world number 1 made birdie, it felt like the comeback was officially underway.
But it wasn’t like that then. Scheffler bogeyed No. 2, ran off four straight pars and then bogeyed No. 7. He was back to four over par, ahead of exactly one player (Garrick Higgo) and 11 shots behind playing partner Xander Schauffele.
That was the moment when Scheffler looked most despondent. With his hat tilted, he stormed to the eighth tee and fell into a chair in frustration. He then fired his tee shot well to the left, repeating a lefty miss he battled all day. With the ball floating out of bounds, Scheffler dropped his driver on the follow-through, apoplectic. That’s a characteristic of Scheffler: he’s so used to everything going well that he can’t believe it when it doesn’t.
At that moment, it felt like Scheffler’s tournament was all but over. But strangely, the stumble seemed to emphasize how few stumbles there have been. Making cuts has become easier, with more no-cut events and smaller fields. Yet Scheffler hasn’t missed one since the summer of 2022. That’s crazy. What’s even crazier is Scheffler’s streak of 19 consecutive finishes of T8 or better. We can take his ruthlessness for granted, but we shouldn’t.
The key to Scheffler’s ruthlessness is that He never takes anything for granted. And so he found his way to par on No. 8 and then played essentially perfect golf for the next 40 minutes, keeping his approach to three feet on No. 9, chipping to two feet on the drivable par-4 10th, and hitting a brilliant second on the par-5 11th. Birdie, birdie, birdie. He needed one more but couldn’t find it until the par-5 17th, where he threw a challenging medium-length, all-carry bunker shot to four feet and made the putt. And then came number 18, where he just missed the green but fell short of a chip shot before saving himself with a nervy par putt that gave him two more chances to climb the leaderboard.
The fist pump, plus the ferocious high five he shared with Scott, showed that a man was clearly not too cool to grind for a cut made. All that to reach the top 50 in a field of 72 players. All to keep the streak alive. All that to climb from the basement to the first floor.
Scheffler made no excuses after the round. He sounded relieved that he had finally come away with par, after “trying to make a mess with a fairly simple chip.” He admitted he hasn’t quite cracked Riviera’s code yet.
“I don’t know, this place and I have a weird relationship. I feel like I can play so well here, but that’s not the case yet,” he said.
As for his woes on Thursday? Scheffler mentioned some specific conditions: “I wouldn’t say anything special.” So there.
For obvious reasons, Scheffler is increasingly being compared to Woods. It’s fitting that Riviera gives him fits. It also gave Woods fits. It’s the tournament he somehow never won.
Scheffler is unlikely to win this edition, although it would be foolish to write him off completely. It turns out that Scottie Scheffler isn’t very good at being in last place.
And he’s even worse at it to stay there.
Dylan Dethier will be visiting from Riviera all weekend. You can reach him at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
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