Scheffler’s putting struggles and the shifting OWGR landscape

The gap between dullness and data

I see a massive gap between Scottie Scheffler’s claim that his season feels "dull" and the statistical reality on the greens. He told media at Shinnecock that he lacks sharpness, but his strokes gained/putting rank of 142nd tells a specific story of struggle. At the Memorial, his putting performance hit -2.129, a figure so low it would have turned a potential victory into a seven-shot deficit against an average week. While he suggests the media creates a "story" around his putting, the numbers show he loses roughly 0.8 strokes over a four-day tournament compared to the level of play he exhibited during his previous season. He can attempt to manage these issues like Tiger Woods did when the Hall of Famer overcame involuntary wrist contractions to win the 2019 Masters. His former coach, Hank Haney, noted that Woods had to manage the yips through technique changes. He shattered the PGA Tour single-season earnings record in 2022 and leads the tour in strokes gained/off-the-tee and strokes gained/total. In 20 starts, Scheffler finished outside the top 25 just once and recorded 13 top-fives. If he putted to his potential best, like his +1.039 performance at TPC Scottsdale, he could have claimed three more wins this year at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, AT&T Byron Nelson, and the Genesis Scottish Open.

Declining dominance and missed streaks

The data confirms Scheffler’s dominance slides from its previous peaks. His iron play fell from 1st in strokes gained approach to 16th over the last few years, and his 18-straight top-10 streak ended with a T-12 finish at Riviera. This streak, which included seven wins, surpassed Vijay Singh’s record of 12 and Tiger Woods’ record of 11. I find it difficult to ignore that his 78-event made cut streak, which lasted 1,428 days, ended at the Genesis Scottish Open. You should keep an eye on his recent volatility at the PGA Championship at Aronimink, where he finished as the 124th of 156 players in strokes gained/putting on Friday.

He finished 12th at Riviera where Jacob Bridgeman won a $4 million prize. He struggled through the cold, blustery conditions at Riviera, starting with a career-worst 5-over par through 10 holes on Thursday. He even shanked a bunker shot on the fifth hole during that difficult round. Despite this, he recovered to shoot a 6-under 65 on Sunday. He has won nine times in the 25 months since his first PGA Tour title, including a five-shot comeback at TPC Sawgrass, yet his recent lack of precision remains obvious.

The OWGR enforcement impact

The Official World Golf Ranking board enforces rules that change how players on LIV Golf earn status. The OWGR board decided to award ranking points only to the top-10 finishers in LIV’s 14 individual stroke-play events this year. LIV officials criticized this, stating that treating an 11th-place finisher the same as a 57th-place finisher is unprecedented. Trevor Immelman, the OWGR chairman, noted that LIV players do not earn their places through competitive promotion or relegation. LIV moves to 72-hole events in 2026 to address some of these issues, but the field size for the season-opening event in Riyadh remains at 57 players. Previously, 54-hole tournaments received 75 per cent of the original field rating and points distribution. The Saudi-backed league also received $113 million in additional funding this month to push its total funding past $5 billion. How will the players respond to these restricted points? The decision leaves the LIV field to face a much harder path to securing major championship eligibility.