Johnson Wagner believes that the pressure of completing the Career Grand Slam impacted Scottie Scheffler more than he was willing to admit as his wait for a second win of 2026 continues.
Scheffler’s form simply has to be judged differently to every single other player on the planet. The world number one has won once this year, while he has finished second four times on the PGA Tour.
Anyone else, including Rory McIlroy, would be very pleased with that return at the very least.
However, Scheffler has established himself as the game’s most dominant player since Tiger Woods was at the very top.
The Travelers Championship playoff summed up Scottie Scheffler’s season
In many ways, his playoff defeat to Viktor Hovland at the Travelers Championship summed up Scottie Scheffler‘s year. He hit two perfect shots to set up a brilliant opportunity on the 18th at TPC River Highlands. And yet, that final piece of the jigsaw was missing.
It is so clearly nearly there with Scheffler. It should come as absolutely no surprise when he next wins at a canter. He is giving himself too many opportunities not to win again before the end of the year.
But speaking on Scorecard on CBS, Johnson Wagner suggested that the opportunity to make history at the US Open last month has hurt Scheffler.
“We look at the 13 events that he’s played since winning The AmEx in his first start of the year. He hasn’t finished outside the top 25, he has eight top fives, four runner-ups, I think if you looked at another player right now, you’d view that as a pretty darn successful season,” he said.
“I know when we talk about world number one, we want to see wins. He’s been so dominant the last few years. When you think back to Scottie Scheffler’s 2025, I know he’s been playing down the fact that he’s going for the Career Grand Slam at Shinnecock, but when you look at how perfect, and you mentioned it, he’s trying to be aggressive, he’s trying to be so perfect, I think when you look back at 2025, the fact that he was going for that for the first time, the Career Grand Slam at the US Open this year, I think it’s weighed him down more than he is letting on.
“I think that now that the US Open is over, we’re going to see Scottie Scheffler get back to a little bit more of the guy we’ve seen over the last couple of years. He’ll get into a little more of a relaxed mode, now that he knows what it feels like to be in that position with a chance to win that tournament.
“The iron play is still incredible, and he said how nicely he hit it this week, but the iron play is not as good as we’ve seen it. If you look at proximity numbers over this year compared to last year, he’s way down. So he’s not having as many great chances.
“Look at what has happened to Jordan Spieth since he started vying for the Career Grand Slam, he’s had a massive slow down on his career. Rory McIlroy was still really good at winning PGA Tour events and on the DP World Tour after he won The Open in 2014, and then was going for the Career Grand Slam. So it remains to be seen, are we going to see Scottie get really stressed at this possibility? Or are we going to see him settle in and be sort of committed and mentally strong, because I think that’s one of Scottie’s greatest strengths, his mental game. And I feel like the mental game is a little bit off, and I’m going to chalk it off to that attempt at the US Open.”
Scottie Scheffler has had the most amazing season statistically
Scheffler’s statistics this season tell an incredible story.
His worst strokes gained category right now is his putting – and he is currently 12th on the greens on the PGA Tour.
He is first for strokes gained from tee to green, while he is seventh around the putting surfaces this year.
Had golf fans been told those would be his numbers after his victory at The American Express, everyone would have assumed that Scheffler would have probably registered several more wins.
They probably would have also guessed that he had added to his tally of four major wins heading into The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
Those fans would have been truly stunned if they learned that he had not won again since La Quinta.
It should alarm everyone on the PGA Tour that Scheffler is still playing so well. If he keeps his composure, it will surely not be too long at all until he is winning regularly again.
