For the second week in a row, Scottie Scheffler bounced back from a slow opening round to put himself in the mix at the top of a PGA Tour leaderboard.
Scheffler seemed out of it heading into Sunday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
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The only reason to back the world number one to contend was that he produced a stunning round to come within one shot of making a playoff at the WM Phoenix Open last week.
History indeed mirrored itself at Pebble Beach, as Scheffler briefly seized the clubhouse lead. He achieved this by delivering a final-round 63, pushing his total score to 20 under par.
Scottie Scheffler reflects on missed opportunities after Pebble Beach final round
Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images
Despite three eagles in one round for the first time in Scheffler’s PGA Tour career, it still was not enough. Mistakes crept in as he pushed for birdies on the back nine.
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In that context, he pointed to a couple of moments when asked if there were any shots he wished he could take back.
“Yeah, I think in rounds of golf there’s always a few. Hit some nice shots today. I mean, maybe a few I would have just played a little differently,” the 29-year-old said.
“That iron shot I hit into 12 I hit really nice, I hit it exactly how I wanted to. The wind was swirling out there and it was one we just got the wrong gust. I mean, the wedge shot I hit into 15 was exactly how I wanted to hit it, and we haven’t really seen many bounces this week and that one bounced over the green. Little stuff like that where throughout 18 holes of golf, you’re going to get good and bad breaks. Overall, did a lot of good stuff.”
Scheffler reflects on another slow start after nearly winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
Scheffler’s feelings about his early-season form are understandably mixed. In three starts so far, he has not finished worse than third place.
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But his last two events both started with rounds in the low 70s, meaning he spent much of those tournaments playing catch-up rather than building leads.
The world number one has come close to erasing those early deficits more than once already this year. And for that reason, he is choosing to see plenty of positives in how he has managed to fight back into contention each time.
Scheffler stated: “A frustrating start to both of the last couple weeks. But I think these are some of the weeks when you look back, I’m very proud of sticking with it, not giving up even when I felt like things were going against me this week. Just kept fighting, kept trying to hit shots, kept trying to execute. Ted did a really good job of keeping me in it. Ultimately probably come up a few shots short, but yeah, just proud of how I fought all week.
“Sometimes it’s just scoring stuff. We came around here the first round and I looked at Teddy about the 15th, 16th hole and I feel like I’m doing kind of good and I’m like 10 shots back. It’s a funny game. Sometimes things go your way and sometimes things don’t. Today’s the day where I holed a lot of putts from 10, 20 feet. On greens like this there’s a lot of suspense when the ball’s rolling up to the hole. The beginning of the week those putts weren’t falling and they all decided to go in today, so it’s just a funny game.”
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Scheffler’s competitors are undoubtedly hoping he does not soon figure out how to be a quicker starter.
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