Scottie Scheffler heads into the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale this week on the back of his first missed cut in 79 events.
Scheffler put in a poor performance at the Scottish Open last week, and there are now real concerns about his ability to defend the Open Championship title he won last year at Royal Portrush.
The world number one has clearly been nowhere near his best all season long, but he has still managed to produce an incredibly consistent set of results.
Scottie Scheffler has one win and nine top-5 finishes to his name in 15 starts this season. He is also sitting at the top of the FedEx Cup points list.
However, the 30-year-old heads into The Open Championship with some big problems that he needs to address urgently.
Scheffler’s missed cut at the Scottish Open last week was the first time since August 2022 that he has had to make do without any weekend golf on the PGA Tour.
Now alarm bells are ringing about the state of the Texan’s game heading into the Open at Royal Birkdale this week.
Scottie Scheffler said to have a big issue ahead of Open title defence
Rex Hoggard spoke about Scheffler’s current struggles on The Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lav, alongside Ryan Lavner.
Hoggard responded when asked to give his opinion on Scheffler missing the cut at the Genesis Scottish Open last week.
“It’s twofold,“ Hoggard began.
“One, it’s not just that he missed the cut, because even he sort of filled in the blanks, that the way the tour is set up, now you have so many non-cut events, and not to take anything away from Scottie, what Scottie has accomplished, but all but two of the signature events are non-cut.
“So I think that is part of this conversation.
“The bigger part of it is how and why he missed the cut.
“Because his iron play, his ball-striking, is one thing that we can always go back to that, yes, that’s going to be the staple.
“Maybe his putting’s not quite right, maybe he’s not hitting fairways the way he wants to, but his iron play is always going to be spot on.
“According to the PGA Tour stats, he lost 1.78 strokes, in strokes gained approach, which is staggering when you consider, in its last 25 starts, on the PGA Tour, he’s only lost strokes one other time. That was Bay Hill last year, not even this year.
“It’s just something he doesn’t do now.
“There is a level of concern, not that I don’t think he’s going to make the cut, not that I don’t think he’s going to contend, but we spent all season sort of kicking the can when it came to Scottie Scheffler.
“The idea that he’ll figure it out, that there’s no way that a player of that calibre, a player that’s accomplished everything that he has done over the course of his career, can continue to slide down this slope, and he was always close.
“There was always some sort of silver lining that you could point to. His runner-up finishes, he hasn’t finished outside the top 25. He hasn’t missed a cut in however many years.
“This one, I think you have to put up some sort of alarm bells. You have to put a critical eye, and I’m not quite sure if I make him the favorite going into this week.“
Why Scottie Scheffler’s missed cut at the Scottish was so concerning
“I think what we’re in the same trap that we’ve been in all season long,“ Hoggard said.
“You’re trying to come up with a reason. Trying to quantify why this generational player that’s been able to do so many things, like generationally good ball striking stats, somehow gets to an event like last week.
“This really came out of nowhere, and it’s easy, I think, by and large, on Sunday nights for you and I to sit here and have this conversation when he finished 2nd again, or 4th again. He’s just slightly off, and you’re right, something is just slightly off.
“This one did feel a little bit more jarring.
“I’m not sitting here saying that the reign of Scottie Scheffler is over. That would be ridiculous. That’s not the point at all.
“What I’m pointing out is, this one is concerning because of how it happened. Not that it happened.
“If he struggled with his putting or off the tee, or just had one bad round. If he had one bad nine holes, like we just talked about Rory having, that would have been something that, okay, you can, you know, write that off.
“This was systemic over 36 holes. I think that’s why it’s concerning.“
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