Scottie Scheffler hasn’t won a tournament since January, but his recent performances have been remarkably close. The world number one notched three consecutive second-place finishes to close out April before taking a week off to prepare for the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club near Philadelphia.
While most golfers would celebrate such a streak, Scheffler faces questions about his ability to close out wins. His wife joked last week that he’s the first player in PGA Tour history to post three solo runner-up finishes in a row. Scheffler quipped, “Yeah, it’s probably because the guy that was playing that good figured out a way to win one of those, he didn’t come second in all three.”
“It’s bittersweet. Finishing second isn’t bad, but especially the way I did it a couple times. I was spotting guys so many strokes going into the weekend, mainly the Masters,” Scheffler said Tuesday.
At Augusta, Scheffler followed a second-round 74 with weekend rounds of 65 and 68 to finish one stroke behind Rory McIlroy. The next week at the RBC Heritage on Hilton Head Island, he shot 64 and 67 to move up the board but lost in a playoff to Matt Fitzpatrick. Two weeks later, at the Cadillac Championship in Miami, another slow start led to a second-place finish at 13 under, but Cameron Young won by six shots.
“You know you’re playing good golf, and you’d love to get some wins,” Scheffler, 29, said. “Finishing second hurts, but when you reflect and look at things to work on, there’s a lot less to clean up than when you finish 30th.”
Of Scheffler’s four career majors, none have been won back-to-back. His Masters victories came two years apart, and he added the PGA Championship and Open Championship in 2025. This week, he aims to successfully defend a major title for the first time. Defending outside Augusta requires some luck with course rotation; Scheffler won at Quail Hollow last year, a course on the regular PGA Tour schedule. He admitted Tuesday he has never played golf in the Philadelphia area.
“A lot depends on the golf course and conditions,” Scheffler said of the PGA Championship challenge. “At this course, soft versus firm gives two totally different tests. When soft, you can get away with being far offline. When firm, the fairways are tough to hit, and you need to control spin and distance well, especially from the rough.”
Scheffler would rather answer questions about near-misses than celebrate mediocre finishes. “I’d much rather sit here and be asked, ‘Hey, how come you didn’t win last week?’ than ‘He finished 15th, that’s a pretty good start.’ Those questions are easier to answer.”
