The murmurs beside the ninth green began when a video board showed Scottie Scheffler’s face.
A few hundred yards away, Scheffler was in the fairway, lining up the final approach shot of his opening round at the WM Phoenix Open. And the video board, just left of the green, informed spectators that Scheffler was, somehow, sitting at 2-over par.
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Naturally, the reaction was incredulous. Wait, Scottie is 2-over? What’s going on? How did this happen?
When Scheffler slid a birdie putt past the right side of the cup, finishing his day with a par, he secured his worst PGA Tour round in eight months, tying a two-over 72 at the Travelers Championship last June.
Since then, Scheffler had finished all 33 of his rounds under par, continuing his rocketship ride into superstardom. Over the past two seasons, Scheffler has won twice as often as he’s finished outside the top-10. This week, he entered as a +225 favorite — odds eight times shorter than anyone else in the field.
After all, in his only previous start this season, he shot 27-under, winning the AmEx by four strokes.
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On Wednesday, Feb. 4 — the day before the start of the Phoenix Open — he spoke about how much he enjoys this time of year, how rejuvenated he feels after the offseason.
“A lot of it is getting home and getting rest and spending time with the people I love at home and getting ready to come back out here and do it again,” Scheffler said. “Rest is a huge part of it, and I’ve come to value that more as my career has gone forward.”
But as the Phoenix Open began, Scheffler looked nothing like that version of himself. He missed six greens and, more importantly, saved par on just one of those holes, or 16.7%. Over the course of last season, Scheffler’s scrambling percentage was 68.9%, the third-best mark on tour.
In this round, Scheffler’s struggles came to a head at the turn. He yanked his wedge shot to the left on 18, then could only put his chip to 26 feet. A hole later, he was long on his approach shot, then three-putted from the back of the green. On the third hole of this stretch — the par-4 hole 2 — Scheffler found himself in a fairway bunker, pitched out, mishit an approach shot from the rough and settled for double bogey. By that point, he was over par for good.
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After most rounds at TPC Scottsdale — where he is a two-time winner — Scheffler goes through the typical media circuit. A sitdown interview with the day’s broadcast partner, a spot on PGA Tour radio and then a few questions with reporters huddled under a pavilion.
This time, he emerged from the clubhouse after signing his scorecard, circumvented that attention and made a beeline directly toward the bridge that leads to TPC Scottsdale’s practice facilities.
On this day, there was still work to do.
But the thing about Scottie Scheffler? Even in that moment, he was still +1950, in danger of missing the cut but holding the eighth-best odds in the field. Don’t write him off. Not yet.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Scottie Scheffler struggles to start Waste Management Phoenix Open
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