Scottie Scheffler remains the best player in the world, but heading into the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, the tournament where he set the PGA Tour scoring record just 12 months ago, the world No. 1 Scheffler has problems that Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee believes cannot continue to be ignored.
“He’s missed an insane number of short putts this year,” Chamblee said. “There are nearly 60 players on tour who didn’t miss a 3-footer all year. Some of them hit 450 out of 450. It’s unusual for a tour player to miss a 3-footer, but it certainly wasn’t unusual for Aronimink’s Scotty Scheffler, and this year was no exception.” The conclusion was straightforward. “We can’t afford to make a mistake like that considering he’s been a little off ball-striking this year.”
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The numbers from last week’s PGA Championship at Aronimink back that up. The golfer ranked seventh in tee shots, fifth in approach play and fourth in strokes gained from tee to green, but finished 14th at 2 under. He ranked 72nd in strokes gained putting for the week and lost strokes on the green in three of four rounds, including a 2.2-stroke loss on Saturday, his worst single-round putting performance in nearly a year.
This has been building for months. Scheffler’s results in 2026 speak for themselves: a win at the Amex in January, followed by a T24 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a T22 at The Players and a T14 at the PGA Championship. Although he continued to hit the ball strongly in all four events, his putter was constantly damaged.
Chamblee has also expressed concerns before, when Scheffler hit only half the fairway in the opening round against TPC Sawgrass in March and nearly missed the cut. Chamblee criticized his driver swing golf channel live broadcast“I don’t even recognize this golf swing from Scotty Scheffler. It’s a foot and a half shorter than last year, and the face is wide open.” Scheffler recovered to shoot 5 under in the third round, but the fact that both his driver and putter came under scrutiny in the same season suggests the player is managing multiple issues at the same time.
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The 29-year-old doesn’t dispute the dispute, especially on the green, insisting it was circumstantial. “I hit a lot of good putts right on the edge,” he said after Saturday’s round at Alonimink, where he missed 5 feet on No. 1 and 10 feet on No. 5. “When it’s hilly and windy, it’s a bit of a roll of the dice.” He also lost a stroke putt on Sunday.
Given the circumstances, his next week at TPC Craig Ranch is worth watching closely. At last year’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson, Scheffler won by eight strokes with a 72-hole score of 253, tying the lowest score in PGA Tour history for a non-Sentry event with wire-to-wire scores of 61-63-66-63. Chamblee acknowledged that Scheffler’s version was able to absorb mistakes on short putts because his entire game covered short putts. That’s not possible at his current level. In Chamblee’s words, “When he’s at his best, those mistakes are forgivable. But he hasn’t been at his best this year.”
However, off the course a completely different situation emerges.
Scottie Scheffler’s quiet balancing act before title defense
Scheffler welcomed her second child, Remy, in late March, and the demands of her family have drastically changed the way Scheffler builds with her tools on a daily basis. Less time at the practice range, earlier departures, and tighter schedules. He’s not complaining about it, he’s just adjusting.
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“If you’re tired, it means you’ve had a good day,” Scheffler says. His streak of top 25 finishes is 31 consecutive tournaments dating back to 2024. The fatigue is real, but it clearly hasn’t affected his scoring. That consistency speaks for itself.
Byron Nelson carries personal weight beyond just a title defense. Scheffler grew up in Dallas and has been playing this tournament since he was a child, making his first PGA Tour start here as an amateur at age 17. Byron Nelson is as important to the man as he is to the event that bears his name.
While PGA Tour restructuring could affect Nelson’s placement in the future hierarchy system, Scheffler said candidly, “Those decisions are out of his control.” What he does know is that he wants to protect the tournament. “I have nothing but great things to say about this event,” he said.
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