TULSA, Oklahoma (Reuters) – Scottie Scheffler, who soared to new heights with a red-hot start to the year that included a Masters triumph, was brought back down to earth on Friday at the PGA Championship where he was set to miss the cut.
Scheffler arrived at Southern Hills Country Club this week as a co-favourite but followed a disappointing first round with a five-over-par 75 that left him at six-over on the week and two shots outside the projected cut line.
“Definitely frustrating,” Scheffler said in a report on the Golf Channel website. “I’m disappointed, too. It’s never fun missing cuts; I wanted to play the weekend. I tried to grind it out as hard as I could, and I just didn’t have it this week.”
Barring a dramatic shift in the projected cut line, this will mark the second consecutive year that the world’s top-ranked player misses the cut at the PGA Championship as Dustin Johnson suffered the same fate at Kiawah Island in 2021.
Scheffler started his day on the 10th hole in blustery conditions but looked ready to make a move after reaching the turn with nine consecutive pars before things fell apart.
He carded bogeys at his 10th and 11th holes and gained some hope with a birdie at the par-four fourth but then proceeded to bogey two of his next three holes.
Scheffler was right on the cut line when he reached his final hole of the day but sent his drive into a fairway bunker and went on to three-putt from about 14 feet for double-bogey.
“I hit some good shots, hit some bad ones, and was punished pretty severely for the bad ones,” said Scheffler.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Ken Ferris)
