Golf Fans Go WILD as Scottie Scheffler Struggles Again in First Round: “Doing It for Fun at This Point”

For a third straight PGA Tour start, Scottie Scheffler struggled in the first round as he was 5-over par after 10 holes at the end of Thursday's play.

Golf Fans Go WILD as Scottie Scheffler Struggles Again in First Round: “Doing It for Fun at This Point”

Scottie Scheffler (Image via X/@GolfDigest)

It seems Scottie Scheffler is having some first-round jitters. On Thursday, for a third straight event, he struggled in the opening round. When the play was suspended at the Genesis Invitational, he was last on the leaderboard.

The World No.1 started off the year in strong fashion as he won in his first start. At the American Express Championship. He fired scores of 63, 64, 68 and 66 in the event. This saw him finish 4 strokes ahead of runners-up, Jason Day, Ryan Gerard, Matt McCarty and Andrew Putnam and claimed his 20th PGA Tour win.

He also became just the third golfer, after Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, to amass $100 million in career earnings while playing on the PGA Tour.

Since then, he has recorded a T3 finish at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and a T4 finish at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. In the Phoenix Open, he finished 1 stroke behind the playoff group of Hideki Matsuyama and eventual winner Chris Gotterup. At the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, he finished 2 strokes behind the winner Collin Morikawa.

This means he has finished inside the top-5 in each of this 3 starts this year. So what’s wrong? It’s his first-round performances that are sending the golf fans into a frenzy.

At the Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale, Scheffler fired an opening round score of 73. He carded 5 bogeys and 1 double bogey and found himself in trouble. He then bounced back with scores of 65, 67 and 64 in the remaining rounds.

At the Pebble Beach Pro-Am last week, Scheffler fired a score of 72. It was the first time he had shot par or worse to begin consecutive PGA Tour starts since 2020. With scores of 66, 67 and 63 in the next three round saw him bounce back again.

On Thursday at the Riviera Course, his first-round struggles continued. He made 2 bogeys and 1 double bogey on the front nine. He started off the back nine with another bogey on Hole No. 10. After that, the play was suspended due to the weather.

At the end of Thursday, Scheffler was last on the leaderboard through 10 holes while being 5-over.

Social media reacts to Scottie Scheffler struggling again in first round

In the past three years, the way Scottie Scheffler has dominated golf, it seems strange to see him struggle. As he struggled in the first round for a 3rd consecutive start, he proved he is human after all.

Scottie Scheffler
Scottie Scheffler (Image via X/@UnderdogGolf)

Fans on social media would go wild as he found it difficult again on Thursday. With the way he has bounced back in the previous two weeks, some fans on X joked that he was probably “doing it for fun at this point.“

Check out that and some other reactions from X below:

The golfer will now have to first complete his first round on Friday and then play the second round. Given his performances in the past two tournaments, he can bounce back again. This time however, he will need to work even harder.

When was the last time Scottie Scheffler missed the cut at a PGA Tour event?

Such has been his dominance in recent years that it is hard to believe Scottie Scheffler can also struggle on the golf course. The 4-time major champion finds himself in a tough spot at the Genesis Invitational and faces the danger of missing the cut.

Scottie Scheffler
Scottie Scheffler (Image via Imago)

Despite being a signature event, the Genesis Invitational does feature a cut. Only the top-50 and ties after 36 holes will be allowed to play this weekend. As of the time of writing, Scheffler is last in the leaderboard (T71 alongside Keegan Bradley).

The last time Scheffler missed the cut was at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in August 2022. In that event, he carded scores of 71 and 68 and finished under par. However, he missed the cut by 1 stroke.

Since then, he has made 67 consecutive cuts, which is the longest streak at the moment. The record for the most cuts belongs to Tiger Woods at 142. The record-breaking streak of Woods began at the 1998 Buick Invitational and ended at 2005 Byron Nelson Classic. During this time, he claimed 36 PGA Tour wins.

All eyes are thus on Scheffler on Friday. If he does end up making the cut after another poor start, there will be some who would fancy him going all the way.

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