Scottie Scheffler was able to show some positive signs on Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, despite registering his worst finish of the season at Bay Hill.
The world number one failed to break 70 in all four rounds for the first time since last year’s US Open on his way to finishing tied for 24th in Florida.
It seems that Scheffler will have mixed feelings following his performance at the third signature event of the year.
Why Scottie Scheffler had an uncharacteristically mixed week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational
Scheffler was 44th for strokes gained approach at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. It was his worst performance against the field since The Players Championship four years ago.
Unfortunately, Ryan Lavner revealed on the Golf Channel Podcast that was not the only longstanding run in Scheffler’s career which ended this past week.
He did, however, suggest that there were some more encouraging signs during his final round, with how close he was hitting his approach shots on Sunday.
“I do think there are some reasonable – I wouldn’t even call them concerns – things to monitor. I think his attitude was one of them. Commenting, bristling about the quote-unquote ‘dead greens’ that we saw at Bay Hill was a little bit curious because Daniel Berger through two rounds was 13 under par and absolutely lighting it up on the greens, so it certainly was possible to do so,” he said.
“I think most particularly, something that I’m going to continue to monitor – this was my thing to watch heading into Bay Hill and was proven correct, and now I’m really going to watch at TPC Sawgrass where it’s going to be under the microscope even more – was this was the second straight week that Scottie Scheffler has lost strokes with his approach play.
“To put that in context, Scottie Scheffler has not done that, again back to back weeks on tour negative strokes gained approach, he has not done that since 2021. You saw it over the course of the four days, battling a couple of left misses. He had some really odd distance control issues over the first three rounds where he was missing 10, 15 yards short of a couple of flags.
“I will say on Sunday, Scottie was much sharper. Again, he did not make a run at the leaders. In fact, he went backwards on the leaderboard. But from a proximity to the hole standpoint, he was 20 feet with his approach play, by far the best of any player on Sunday. So that should give him some reasons for optimism. Potentially he found something on the range Saturday night, Sunday morning that he can work off going into TPC Sawgrass and The Players Championship.”
Scheffler was also given food for thought with how his driver performed at Bay Hill
Scheffler was just inside the top 20 for strokes gained off the tee. He definitely appears to have added some distance to his game in 2026, averaging 317.8 yards with the driver at Bay Hill.
However, Lavner suggested that Scheffler is still searching for the right balance between distance and accuracy, having put a new piece of equipment in the bag for this past week.
“One other thing to monitor, a new driver in the bag. He had tinkered with it earlier in the season, went for the older model. The new model was in the bag this week, a little bit iffy. 53 per cent driving accuracy over the four rounds. I thought he was interestingly non-committal about keeping it in the bag for the self-described fifth major,” he said.
Scheffler did not finish outside the top eight again after The Players Championship 12 months ago. Many will be expecting a similar run this time around despite his current struggles.
The big difference this time around is that Scheffler is not coming back from a hand injury. He won on his first start of the year at The American Express, so there is an argument that he has gone backwards since then.
Almost any other player on the PGA Tour could produce these results and not have anyone bat an eyelid. However, we have come to expect so much from Scheffler that it is extremely jarring anytime he finishes outside the top 20 – particularly if his iron play is average.