Scottie Scheffler is in last place at the Genesis Invitational.
Yes, you read that right. The world number one, the most dominant force in golf, started his opening round five over par through ten holes before play was called to a close. He’s T71 with Keegan Bradley in a 72-man field.
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Scheffler has started slowly in his last two events, but it hasn’t been this bad. He shot a 73 to start at the WM Phoenix Open, and a 72 at Pebble Beach, leaving him with a mountain to climb on the final two days.
On both occasions, he brought himself into contention on the final day and nearly won both tournaments, leaving us all to wonder if he could do the impossible and climb back up the leaderboard again.
And PGA Tour winner Michael Kim, also in the field at Riviera Country Club, made a bold prediction for the rest of Scheffler’s tournament.
Photo by Ben Jared/PGA TOUR via Getty Images
Michael Kim predicts Scottie Scheffler to be level par by the time his round starts
Scheffler played his opening 10 holes in terrible conditions, as the wind swirled around Riviera. He wasn’t the only one playing in those winds, and he coped with it the worst of anyone, but this goes some way to explaining his score.
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Due to a weather delay earlier in the round, Scheffler will play the final eight holes in the morning, giving him a chance to reset and get the benefit of some calmer conditions. And that led Kim to make a bold prediction for the world number one.
He posted to X: “Hey guys… my Pgatour app is broken… It’s showing Scottie as 71st
“Do I delete and reinstall? Weird”
He then went on to post: “I’m sure he’ll be at even before I tee off tomorrow”.
It’s a massive nod to Scheffler that very few are ruling him out of winning this week despite his terrible start, but he needs to recover some shots in the morning in order to get back in contention.
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The reason why Scottie Scheffler struggled on day one at Riviera
When Scheffler plays poorly, it’s typically his old weakness that rears its ugly head: his putting. That’s certainly the case this week.
The greens at Riviera are incredibly strange this week. They are about as soft as they come on approach, but still lightning fast, which is causing some issues for players up and down the field. Few have struggled more than Scheffler, though.
He lost 3.18 strokes to the field through 10 holes, and only one player, Justin Rose, putted worse than the American on day one. But what is even more concerning is his iron play.
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Scheffler’s irons are always something he’s been able to fall back on, but not so far at Riviera. In the wind, he lost 1.47 strokes on approach.
That’s likely to be corrected as the weather calms, but if he can’t fix his play on the greens, he might be staring down the barrel of an early end to his tournament.
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