If you are a usual professional golfer and are told before participating in the iconic Masters Tournament that you will finish 4 on the leaderboard, you would be happy, excited, and thrilled. However, not if you are Scottie Scheffler. If you are Scheffler, then your standards are so high that nothing other than winning satiates you. Unfortunately for him, that winning hasn’t happened in a while.

The RBC Heritage Open is a very good example. He had a strong first round when he carded a seven under par before dropping the ball in the second with a 1 under par. He managed a total of 12 under par to finish T8. Good, but not good enough. Not by Scottie Scheffler’s standards. “You know, I did some good things. I just needed a few more shots out there. Which was definitely there for the taking for me. I just didn’t quite take advantage of them.” The two-time Major champion stated after his fifth top-ten finish of the season, with Justin Thomas taking the bragging rights and the $3.6 million prize money.

At this time last year, Scheffler had clinched four very important titles. These included the Arnold Palmer Invitational, The PLAYERS Championship, his second major title at Augusta, and the RBC Heritage Open. However, Scheffler had failed to defend all four of his titles this season. Right now, while he is still getting closer to his 14 title on the PGA Tour, he has not yet found the string of consistent performances across four days to push him forward to a victory.

Take the RBC Heritage, for example. The World No.1 finished T8  but only managed to score 1 under par on days 2 and 4. Now imagine if either one of those days was a 6 under par. He would have been in the playoffs and competing for the title. While it is a ‘what-if’ situation, Scheffler’s performances last year had made the fans believe in the fact he is able to produce these kinds of performances consistently.

“I think I’m really close. I feel like I did a lot of things well this week, just a few of the important shots I just didn’t pull off. Outside of that, it was a pretty solid week,” he explained.

Even his chief competitor last year, Xander Schauffele, has had severe problems after his return from injury this season. Schauffele had to deal with an intercostal strain and a cartilage tear in his ribs this season, forcing him to miss nearly two months. Since his return, Schauffele has failed to crack the top 5 at any event, which is highly disappointing. While Schauffele’s injury was game-related, Scheffler’s was a freak accident.

The tumultuous end of last year for Scottie Scheffler

Scheffler had missed the beginning of the season due to an unfortunate hand injury sustained during the Christmas holidays. Scheffler was trying to prepare ravioli for dinner when his hand got cut by a wine glass, which he had used for cutting dough.

“Yeah, it broke, and the stem kind of got me in the hand. So, it’s one of those deals where, like, it’s truly – I can’t live in a bubble, like, got to live my life, and accidents happen. You know, it could have been a lot worse. I actually talked to somebody who did the exact same thing, and the stem went straight through their hand. It’s one of those deals where, immediately after it happened, I was mad at myself because I was like, ‘Gosh, that’s so stupid’. But you just don’t think about it when you’re in the moment.” Scheffler had recalled the incident previously.

Since the fateful incident, Scheffler has been far from his best. He missed the first four events on the tour before making his season debut at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Although it has been a series of close misses in eight events, he has not finished lower than T25, which includes three top 5 finishes. What is missing, though, is his killer dominating instinct, which is yet to be reproduced consistently.

Do you think Scheffler can bounce back and clinch an all-important victory on the PGA Tour before the end of May?