Tournament weeks aren\u2019t usually discovery weeks if you\u2019re Scottie Scheffler. The world\u2019s best player believes that if something is amiss with the golf game, seldom is the answer found during competition. Once the tee balls start flying, you are, for the most part, what you are.<\/p>\n
But Thursday was one of those rare days.<\/p>\n
After a 2-over 73 around a scruffier and firmer TPC Scottsdale than we\u2019re used to, Scheffler was so discouraged that he almost didn\u2019t want to practice. With his preparation last week hindered by a snowy, icy Texas, Scheffler hit more range balls than he wished Monday-Wednesday in the Arizona desert. That cram sesh didn\u2019t exactly pay off either, as Scheffler lost nearly two and a half shots tee to green in the first round and recorded only his 12th round of negative true strokes gained total in his last 161 rounds.<\/p>\n
Despite the frustration, Scheffler knew he needed to find something or risk missing his first cut in over three years. And so, he grabbed his proverbial shovel.<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday was a dig-it-out-of-the-dirt type of day in the afternoon,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cI try to avoid those as much as possible at tournaments, but after the way I felt over the ball yesterday, it was definitely needed. \u2026I went out there, and it was well worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
What Scheffler found was a tweak with his grip that help him get his hands more securely on the club. Scheffler couldn\u2019t explain it further, but whatever it fixed with his mechanics, it led to a second-round 65 that put Scheffler not only on the weekend tee sheet \u2013 his 66th straight cut made, the PGA Tour\u2019s longest active streak by 46 \u2013 but nearly back inside the top 25 at this WM Phoenix Open.<\/p>\n
Scheffler gained over three and a half shots tee to green on Friday as he carded six birdies and no bogeys. He climbed 61 spots on the leaderboard, to T-28, and at 4 under, he\u2019s seven behind leader Ryo Hisatsune but just three shy of fifth place.<\/p>\n
\u201cStruck it much better today,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cYeah, felt a bit lost out there at times yesterday, so today felt a lot better. Felt more in control of my game. You can obviously see that through the cleaner card\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely take a lot of pride in days like today. It\u2019s nice to get myself back in the tournament. Sometimes doesn\u2019t feel like there is anything worse than missing cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scheffler also noted Friday that he\u2019s put himself in contention from this position before in Phoenix. When he captured his maiden PGA Tour title in 2022, Scheffler was nine shots off the lead through 36 holes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of those places you can get hot,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019ll be looking to do over the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tournament weeks aren\u2019t usually discovery weeks if you\u2019re Scottie Scheffler. The world\u2019s best player believes that if something…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-454061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}