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Mark Schlabach
Defending Masters champion Scottie Scheffler said his results so far this season have been decent but not good, but he’s confident his game is headed in the right direction heading into next month’s tournament at Augusta National Golf Club, the first major of the season.
Scheffler, who won nine times around the world last year, including a gold medal at the Olympics, hasn’t yet finished first in five starts this season.
That probably shouldn’t be a surprise after the world No. 1 golfer missed the first month of the season after injuring his right hand while making homemade ravioli on Christmas Day. A broken wine glass punctured the palm of his hand, requiring surgery to remove glass fragments.
Although Scheffler said he no longer has pain in his hand, it has taken a while to regain full range of motion.
“I think it would be silly to say that it didn’t set me back a little bit, because I had to take a good amount of time off,” Scheffler said Wednesday. “And I mean, I’m a right-handed golfer, so any sort of injury that you have to that hand, especially a surgical one, I think is going to have some sort of effect. I think it’d be silly to say that it didn’t set me back a little bit, but at the end of the day, it’s one of those things where, you know, accidents happen.
“I’m going to live my life. I can’t live in a bubble.”
It’s not as if Scheffler’s results haven’t been good. Since returning to action at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in early February, he has finished in the top 25 in each of his starts. He tied for third at 9 under at the Genesis Invitational, three strokes behind winner Ludvig Åberg, and tied for 11th at 4 under at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, another signature event with a loaded field.
Scheffler tied for 20th at 4 under at last week’s Players Championship and was never really in contention.
“Each day, my hand continues to improve, my body continues to get back to where it needs to be,” Scheffler said. “And you know, I think my swing is coming around as well. So I’m definitely excited about the improvements that I’m making. The results this year have been decent. I feel like I’m really close to playing some really nice golf again.”
Regarded as one of the best ball strikers in the game, Scheffler ranks fourth in strokes-gained total (1.714), seventh off the tee (.650) and 11th on approach (.808) this season. He ranks 91st in strokes gained: putting (.029) after struggling on the greens recently.
“I think anytime you don’t play up to your expectations, it’s frustrating,” Scheffler said. “So with the game of golf, I’m getting frustrated probably about 95% of the time. This year, I definitely felt that my ballstriking hasn’t been as good as it has been the last few years, and I felt like that was what was holding me back the last couple weeks.
“Just not hitting the ball as sharply as I have in previous years. A lot of that is kind of getting the body back to where it needs to be. Like I said, it was an extended break. Not only does it affect my hand, which is getting very close to 100%, but it affects the rest of how the body works because I wasn’t able to get in the gym and do the things I normally do and practice the way that I normally practice.”
