Scottie Scheffler was left frustrated by ‘giving away shots’ during an inconsistent opening round at The Players, where the world No 1 made a U-turn in his choice of driver.
Scheffler arrived as pre-tournament favourite despite finishing outside the top 10 in successive PGA Tour events for the first time in a year, including a tied-24th finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week.
The four-time major champion struggled off the tee and around the greens during a level-par 72, losing strokes in both metrics, with Scheffler mixing four birdies with as many bogeys in another slow start to a tournament.
Scheffler was playing alongside Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Thomas
“I did some good things in changing weather out there, but overall I felt like I gave away some shots,” Scheffler told reporters. “Hoping to clean it up a little bit the next few days.
“[Tee shots] just kept going right. Hit some better ones on the back, but overall, yeah, just got to be a little sharper. Hit a lot move fairways and struck it better on the back nine. Just like I said, made a few mental errors.
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Scottie Scheffler gave a spiky response when asked by a reporter about how he manages his expectations, after dominating the sport in recent seasons
“Birdieing the last is nice. It doesn’t taste as good when you bogey the 16th and 17th holes. I felt like I struck my irons better today again, so that’s nice.
“I’ve got a different driver in the bag than I did last week – trying to clean things up. I would argue that the only thing I did all that great today was putt.”
Scheffler was playing alongside Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Thomas
‘I haven’t been able to trust it’ – Scheffler explains driver U-turn
Scheffler reverted to the TaylorMade Qi10 driver that saw him dominate the PGA Tour over the past two seasons, having used the new Qi4D driver at Bay Hill last week, although he missed 50 per cent of fairways and regularly found the rough with tee shots.
“The 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,” Scheffler explained. “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.
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“I think that’s a little bit today why the ball started going right way. You look at a hole like 14, seven, 16, you can’t really miss left. I don’t 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. I have seen some improvements in the new driver, it’s just I haven’t been able to trust it in all the different shots that I hit, especially off the tee.”
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Fleetwood in title hunt after ‘bonus stretch’ of scoring
Scheffler was playing alongisde Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood, who produced a remarkable burst of scoring around the turn to card an opening-round 69.
The FedExCup champion followed a 30-foot eagle at the par-five 16th with three birdies in a four-hole stretch, with Fleetwood holding the solo lead during the brief weather delay before carding three bogeys and just one birdie over the closing six holes.
Tommy Fleetwood is looking to become the first English winner of The Players
“It’s a huge bonus of a stretch, really, because I played really solid that whole nine holes,” Fleetwood said. “I left a few short – I struggled with the pace of the greens all day really.
“They [greens] took me by surprise – still look a bit brownish, but they weren’t that fast today. I just left way too many putts short and struggled with my pace a little bit.
“Up until that point on 16, I had like two or three sort of mid-range chances and hadn’t holed anything. Hit a great shot into 16 and holed that. Got a read off Scottie on that [17th] hole. Then 18, made birdie there. A complete bonus of a stretch, but it was really good golf through that point.”
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