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SAN DIEGO – Enter Scottie Scheffler, the “game-manager.”
The world No. 1 is a ball-striking savant whose tee-to-green game in recent years has rivaled the best versions of Tiger Woods. But he’s relied on another facet the last two days at the relocated Genesis Invitational, where that legendary swing has taken a back seat to his sublime short game.
“Typically, if you look at last year, if I was to have results like I did, you would have seen something with my putting, I think. If I wasn’t competing last year, it was typically because of my putting and the last two weeks I felt like it was odd in the sense that I wasn’t driving it very well,” Scheffler said at Torrey Pines.
It was an impressive level of self-awareness considering that for two soggy days on the South Course, Scheffler is 30th in the field in strokes gained: off the tee and has hit just 13 of 28 fairways. He missed his first fairway Friday left, his second left, his fourth left, his seventh left — you get the idea.
Yet, despite his wayward play on one of the PGA Tour’s most demanding driving tests, Scheffler posted a second-round 67 and is alone in second place, a stroke off the lead held by Davis Thompson, thanks to a nearly perfect short game.
He was 5-for-5 in scrambling on Day 2 — and 5-for-6 on Day 1 — including delicate up-and-downs on two of his first three holes to keep pace.
“A lot of it was missing on the correct sides. I think that’s part of shaking the rust off from being injured as well is the short game’s continuing to improve as I start to play more. It was definitely good to have a day like today where I felt like I didn’t play flawless golf but the scorecard was clean,” said Scheffler, who injured his right hand in a bizarre cooking accident during the holidays and didn’t make his first start of the year until last month’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
That injury became a focus last week during the WM Phoenix Open, where he tied for 25th (his worst finish on Tour since last year’s BMW Championship), thanks in large part to substandard ball-striking that included lost strokes off the tee and with his approach play.
The first two days at the Genesis Invitational, which was relocated from Riveria Country Club following last month’s devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, was more of the same. Luckily, the player who is renowned for his ball-striking was bailed out by his short game.
“I felt like my short game the last couple weeks has not been nearly where it should be,” Scheffler said. “I hit some shots around the green that were a little bit unusual for me and this week I feel like, especially today around the greens I was really good. So I feel like those short little touchy shots are always the ones that are the last to come back after a longer layover. And yeah, it’s nice to get those feels back.”
Tee times, pairings and how to watch the third round of the Genesis Invitational
Tee times for the third round of the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines’ South Course.
Scheffler went to the range following his second round, which is his normal post-round routine, and he was confident his swing was getting closer to what we are accustomed to from the world’s best. But he also understands that golf is rarely perfect.
“I would rather be in the middle of the fairway and putting 10 feet for birdie. You know, that’s part of the game. Over the four days of a tournament you’re going to have days where you hit it great and days where you don’t hit it as well,” he said. “Today was a day where I didn’t hit the ball as well as I would have hoped to, but overall no bogeys, three birdies and an eagle. I mean, I scored really well today.”
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