With his historic streak of top-10 finishes over, Scottie Scheffler looks to write another page in the history books this week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Scheffler, who won the tournament at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Fla., in 2022 and 2024, can join Tiger Woods as the only players to win the PGA Tour’s signature event more than twice.
Woods won the tournament an astonishing eight times. The other two-time champions are Jerry Heard, Gary Koch, Tom Kite, Loren Roberts, Ernie Els and Matt Every.
Scheffler, 29, is making his sixth start at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and has never finished worse than T15. He tied for 11th last year after carding four rounds in the 70s, finishing seven strokes behind winner Russell Henley.
“It’s definitely a place I always enjoy coming back and playing,” Scheffler told reporters Wednesday. “Obviously with Mr. Palmer’s legacy and the way the golf course is, it’s very challenging, and so it’s always a fun test I think for us as players. So, yeah, it’s good to be back, for sure.”
In his most recent tournament, the four-time major winner tied for 12th last month at The Genesis Invitational. That snapped a streak of 18 consecutive top-10s, the longest of its kind since the PGA Tour began keeping official stats in 1983. Even in his prime, Woods never had a streak longer than 11.
Scheffler got off to a rough start at Riviera Country Club with a 74 in the first round, which followed a 72 in the first round at Pebble Beach and a 73 to begin the WM Phoenix Open.
Asked about his “slow starts,” Scheffler said it’s too soon to call it a pattern.
“I mean, last year … I led the Tour in first round, second round, third round and fourth round scoring. So I’m not too concerned over a very small sample size,” he said. “When you look at the body of work for me this year, I played four tournaments, so that’s 16 rounds. And I’ve always been a guy that’s been really good at staying in the present, doing what I need to do in order to go out and play well. And so at 16 rounds I’ve had 13 that have been really solid and three that haven’t been as good. So I’m still batting at a pretty nice percentage.”
Scheffler clearly knows how to deliver solid rounds at Bay Hill, known for its firm greens and treacherous rough.
“When you look at this golf course, you have to be in the fairway,” he said. “If you hit it into some bunkers you’ll be OK, but if you start hitting it in the rough, you’re toast.”
