{"id":520583,"date":"2026-03-13T05:39:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T05:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/520583\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T05:39:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T05:39:07","slug":"despite-switching-back-to-old-driver-scottie-scheffler-72-still-frustrated-off-tee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/520583\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite switching back to old driver, Scottie Scheffler (72) still frustrated off tee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scottie Scheffler went back to old faithful Thursday at The Players \u2013 it just didn\u2019t quite live up to that moniker.<\/p>\n

After finally switching into TaylorMade\u2019s new Qi4D driver at last week\u2019s Arnold Palmer Invitational<\/a> and having so-so results (19th in strokes gained: off-the-tee), Scheffler decided to return to the Qi10 that he\u2019s used for the better part of two years. However, Scheffler found just seven of 14 fairways during an even-par 72 around TPC Sawgrass.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easier hitting it from the fairway than it is from the rough,\u201d Scheffler said afterward. \u201cI played from the rough a lot today.\u201d<\/p>\n

All seven of Scheffler\u2019s missed fairways were to the right, which was the opposite of what happened at Bay Hill. Scheffler said he\u2019s seen positives with the new driver, such as more consistent spin and a touch more speed.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s still not full comfortable shaping drives though.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Scheffler tinkering with multiple drivers Monday at The Players<\/p>\n

Scottie Scheffler made his Players Championship debut on Monday, taking practice shots on the range at TPC Sawgrass. Golf Channel is Live from The Players Championship to access how the world’s top-ranked player has looked recently and what expectations are for him entering the year’s “fifth major.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way I play, I always hit so many different types of shots, and the one last week felt like it was going a little left on me, and when I want to hit my peeler a lot of times I would hit it out of the middle of the face it would start drawing on me,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cSo, I think that\u2019s a little bit today why the ball started going right. \u2026 I don\u2019t think I had enough trust in what the driver head was doing compared to where I was last week. I think it can be tough sometimes to kind of block that stuff out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scheffler was improved with the irons after entering this week ranked 88th in strokes gained: approach. He hit a nice 9-iron 158 yards to 2 feet to set up birdie at the par-4 sixth, his 15th hole of the day, then added a half-wedge to inches for another birdie at his last, the par-5 ninth.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

But Scheffler still rued the handful of poor shots that led to him offsetting his four birdies with four bogeys, including at Nos. 7 and 8.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave up some shots late that I shouldn\u2019t have,\u201d Scheffler added. \u201cI felt like I got a bad lie in the rough on 8, missed on the correct side, but 7 I made a mental error; 2 was messy after getting it in the fairway. So, just little stuff. Just got to be a little sharper.\u201d<\/p>\n

The best part of Scheffler\u2019s game Thursday?<\/p>\n

\u201cI would argue that the only thing I did all that great today was putt,\u201d said Scheffler, who will likely finish the round somewhere inside the top 25 in strokes gained: putting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scottie Scheffler went back to old faithful Thursday at The Players \u2013 it just didn\u2019t quite live up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-520583","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\/520583","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=520583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}