Over the last four years, Scottie Scheffler has become the dominant force of the men’s game, having won his maiden PGA Tour title at the 2022 WM Phoenix Open, and heading to the TPC Scottsdale event in 2026 with an incredible 20 wins on the circuit.
That dominance is also reflected in the length of time he has been at the top of the world rankings, with Scheffler’s fourth stint at the summit standing at 142 weeks and the American having spent a total of 177 weeks looking down on everyone else.
Inevitably, a player demonstrating such superiority very rarely has a failure. Indeed, you have to go back almost 11 months to find the last time Scheffler didn’t finish in the top 10 at a tournament, when he “slumped” to a T20 at The Players Championship while defending his title.
Scheffler no doubt arrived in Arizona confident of not only continuing that run of top-10s but winning the title for the third time, particularly after getting his season off to a dominant start with victory at The American Express two weeks earlier.
Scottie Scheffler began the season with victory at The American Express
(Image credit: Getty Images)
However, after the opening round, not only did he risk missing out on the top 10, but he also had work to do to make the cut.
Scheffler made some uncharacteristic errors in the first round of the tournament, including five bogeys and a double to finish on a two-over 73.
Fans also aren’t accustomed to seeing Scheffler lose his cool on the course, but that happened at the 18th, when he duffed a chip onto the green, appearing close to snapping a wedge across his legs as the ball rolled back down towards his feet.
Scheffler showed his frustrations during an uncharacteristically poor opening round
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The upshot of Scheffler’s frustrating round meant that, as well as avoiding the media, he was 11 behind leader Hideki Matsuyama overnight, and likely needing to go at least two under on Friday to continue a long run of made cuts. But how long?
Well, the last time Scheffler failed to make it beyond the halfway stage of a tournament was in August 2022 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, when rounds of 71 and 68 meant he finished under par but missed the cut by one.
Scottie Scheffler last missed a cut at the…
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