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World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler made his PGA Tour return last week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Despite not winning the tournament, he played well, considering Scheffler underwent hand surgery recently.
He appears to be rounding into form rather quickly. Following an opening-round 2-under 69 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, he posted a strong round on Friday. Scheffler carded a 5-under 66 to head into the weekend at 7-under par. Following his round, the Ridgewood, NJ native detailed the state of his game.
“Yeah, I feel much better about how I played today than yesterday,” Scheffler said.
“I felt like both days could have gotten more out of my rounds but overall did a lot more good things out on the course and looking forward to the weekend. We'll see how the leaderboard shakes out, but I have an outside chance going into the weekend.”
Scheffler began his day on the back nine at TPC Scottsdale. After a string of pars, he birdied the par-5 13th and picked up a couple more par-breakers on 17 and 18 to make the turn in 33 strokes. In typical Scheffler fashion, he carded a bogey-free round and climbed into the Top 10.
Scottie Scheffler reveals the tricky aspect of TPC Sawgrass
This tournament is very different than the rest on the PGA Tour. TPC Sawgrass in Scottsdale has several holes where the fans feel on top of the players. Everyone thinks of the famous 16th, but that is far from the only one. Scheffler provided keen insight into the struggles that PGA Tour players have to manage.
“It's definitely very unique. The crowd is a bit more of a factor this week than it is other weeks,” said Scheffler.
“I think of yesterday, we were on No. 6, and Max has a putt from 12 or 15 feet, and a guy in the crowd yells out, it's dead straight. And then Max starts reading the putt, and he's like, stop reading it, Max, it's dead straight, and he's yelling at him. So like you can't not hear it.”
Most tournaments on Tour, fans move around the golf course. They follow their favorite players and move with them hole to hole. But TPC Sawgrass sees many fans staying in the same spot the entire day.
“So sometimes you have to make a conscious effort to be like, I'm either going to totally ignore that person or maybe he's sitting here all day, maybe he knows something. So it's a tough balancing act out there on the course where sometimes you listen, and sometimes you don't.”
Currently, German pro Thomas Detry leads the tournament at 12-under. That places Scheffler five shots off the pace heading into the weekend. That is not an easy number to overcome, but if someone is going to do it, it would be the two-time Masters champion.
