Scottie Scheffler may not have won a golf tournament since January, but he certainly has come close.
Scheffler placed second in three straight starts to end April before taking a week off to prepare for this week’s PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club outside Philadelphia.
While that accomplishment would stand out on any golfer’s resume, Scheffler, being the World No. 1, is tasked with answering why he’s come up short.
“I think it was last week my wife was like, ‘Hey, Scottie, you’re like the first guy in PGA Tour history to have three solo runner-ups in a row.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s probably because the guy that was playing that good figured out a way to win one of those, he didn’t come second in all three,'” Scheffler joked when speaking with reporters Tuesday.
“A little bit of it is bittersweet. Finishing second in a golf tournament is not bad, but, I mean — especially in the way I did it in a couple of them. I was spotting guys so many strokes going into the weekend, mainly the Masters.”
Scheffler followed a second-round 74 at Augusta National with a 65-68 on the weekend to land one stroke behind Northern Ireland star Rory McIlroy. The next week on Hilton Head Island, S.C., he went 64-67 to make another weekend move but lost to Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick in a playoff at the RBC Heritage.
Two weeks later, it was another signature event at the Cadillac Championship and another slow start somewhat patched by a better finish. He placed second at 13 under, but champion Cameron Young beat him by six shots in Miami.
“You know you’re playing good golf, and you’d love to get some wins,” said Scheffler, 29. “Finishing second hurts, but I think when you reflect and you’re looking at things to work on, there’s a lot less to clean up when you’re finishing second than there is when you’re finishing 30th.”
Of Scheffler’s four career majors, he has yet to win one back-to-back; his Masters wins came two years apart before he added the PGA Championship and Open Championship to his resume in 2025. He will try to successfully defend a major title for the first time this week.
Defending a major title outside of the Masters requires some luck with the course rotation. Scheffler prevailed at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte last year, a course that hosts an annual PGA Tour stop. On Tuesday, Scheffler said he doesn’t believe he’s ever played golf in the Philadelphia area.
“I think a lot of it depends on the golf course. A lot of it depends on the conditions,” Scheffler said of the test a PGA Championship presents. “If you look at this golf course specifically, between it being soft and firm, I think is two totally different tests. If you’re looking at this golf course when it’s soft, I think there’s a lot of stuff you can kind of get away with in terms of like you can hit it pretty far offline. There’s not many things to block you. …
“But if you look at this golf course when it’s firm, the fairways are hard to hit. Then if you want to get the ball close to a lot of these pins, you have to control your spin and control your distance really well, which is not that easy to do out of the rough.”
Scheffler knows one thing: He’d prefer to have to answer questions about why he didn’t win a tournament than merely celebrate decent finishes.
“I’d much rather have to sit here and be (asked), ‘Hey, how come you didn’t win last week,’ versus, ‘He finished 15th, like that was a pretty good start for you, game’s starting to turn around.’ It’s a lot better playing good golf,” he said. “… I think those questions are easier to answer.”
