What’s different, not wrong, with Scottie Scheffler in 2026?

SOUTHPORT, England – There is a longstanding thought, oft proven true, that reaching world No. 1 is an anvil that eventually drags you down.

When the elevated scrutiny, weight of history, and the demand on your time coalesce to sabotage what got you there: playing phenomenal golf.

For four years, Scottie Scheffler has been immune. He has many superpowers, but his personality is specifically suited to handle these challenges. The spotlight is unimportant to him. He actively disdains it. History doesn’t motivate him the way it does Rory McIlroy or Jon Rahm. Scheffler keeps sponsors at arm’s length, careful to take on only what’s absolutely necessary.

“He doesn't care to be a superstar,” Scheffler’s close friend Jordan Spieth said at last year's The Open Championship. “He's not transcending the game like Tiger did … He doesn't want to go do the stuff that a lot of us go do, corporately, anything like that.”

The sporting world has an odd obsession with building up athletes until they reach the top. At which point, we promptly look for reasons to drag them back down. When the underdog is no longer, they lose some luster. Scheffler has largely managed to stay above that fray, too. His utter domination has proven compelling enough for us all to watch in amazement, wondering how long it might last.

There’s been little to scrutinize. Until recently.

Scheffler turns up to this year’s Open with a different buzz—one of uncertainty.

A week ago, Scheffler missed his first cut in nearly four years. He has his fewest wins in a season since 2021, when he had never won before. He’s bagged one of the first three majors in each of the last three years. Will he go without a major title this year?

Those seeds of doubt are unusual for the world No. 1, and in our endless desire to dissect his complexities, it’s led many to ask, What’s wrong with Scheffler?

It’s a question that lacks nuance, presupposing there’s a glaring issue to fix or that Scheffler is broken in some way. Scheffler rejects that notion. We should, too. Here’s the better, simpler question.

What’s different?

For starters, his form has dipped ever so slightly. But context is important.

Last year, per Data Golf, Scheffler’s “true” Strokes Gained (adjusted for field strength) was +3.28. That’s an astronomical figure. It’s the seventh-best statistical season of any player since 1983. Tiger Woods owns the top six.

This year, Scheffler’s true Strokes Gained is +2.84, a notable drop. Still, that’s the 12th-best season on TOUR since 1983. Only eight Woods seasons, one Greg Norman season and two of Scheffler’s own were better.

Put another way, Scheffler’s current season is better than any from Rory McIlroy, Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson, Jason Day, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson or Jordan Spieth.

The valid retort to the raw stats is that the most important of them all – wins – are lacking. Scheffler is displeased with that fact, too.

“For me to be winning a lot of tournaments, you've got to just be really, really sharp. I feel like maybe I've just been a touch dull,” Scheffler said.

The stats bear that out. Here’s a comparison of Scheffler’s last two seasons.

The biggest delta is in his approach play. A year ago, he was far and away the best iron player on the planet. Now, he’s just very, very good, and despite improving around and on the greens, the drop-off in iron play has weighed him down.

That matches with how it looks watching Scheffler. He’s still the best player in the world, contending almost every week, but he appears slightly off in crucial moments. He let Viktor Hovland chase him down at the Travelers Championship.

A year ago, Scheffler likely would have won that by multiple shots.

“The margins in this game are so small,” Scheffler said.

And those shrinking margins have led to a tighter pack at the top. Before, even on their best days, most TOUR players couldn’t withstand Scheffler’s B-game. Now, when other top players play at their peak, they can beat Scheffler when he’s close to his.

Scheffler has four runners-up this season. In those tournaments, he’s lost to McIlroy, Matt Fitzpatrick, Cameron Young and Viktor Hovland.

There are other minute nits to pick. He’s not proven as resilient. He led the TOUR in bounce-back rate (the frequency with which you make a birdie after a bogey). He’s 66th in the same statistic this year. He is still getting off to sluggish starts on Thursdays, putting him behind the eight-ball.

Despite it all, he leads the FedExCup and holds the low scoring average on TOUR.

Then there’s Scheffler’s psyche, which has remained ironclad for the last 48 months. That has looked different in recent months, too.

Part of the burden of being the No. 1 golfer in the world is the outsized expectations thrust on you. The spotlight never leaves. Scheffler has insisted that very little of that noise has seeped into his own assessment of his game. Yet it’s undoubtedly true that as your level rises, your internal expectations do, too.

At the Genesis Scottish Open, Scheffler openly pondered why he has struggled at the venue.

“I haven't played well here,” Scheffler said. “It could be one of those things where you just get over jet lag, get used to new style of golf, new types of grasses, and maybe I just haven't adjusted as quickly, or maybe this golf course just doesn't suit my eye much.”

It was true last week when he missed the cut. But he finished T8-T3 in his previous two starts there. That’s a pretty decent track record.

Scheffler has shown signs of those increased expectations in how he expresses himself on the golf course. He isn’t afraid to extoll his mistakes. As a few more have cropped up this season, he hasn’t hidden his frustration. He’s needed a few more mid-tournament range sessions than expected. He spent hours hitting balls in the pouring rain at THE PLAYERS Championship earlier this year, trying to solve the inefficiencies in his swing. Typically, swing coach Randy Smith is there primarily to make sure Scheffler’s fundamentals are sound. They’ve delved into more detailed swing mechanics recently.

Then there's just the drain of the attention. Scheffler's star is growing brighter by the day, and he's expending energy in a way he never imagined.

"Just being in the spotlight all the time puts a burden on a player in this day and age," Scheffler said. "Everything is being recorded. When they say hello to you, they've got their cell phone out. Sometimes you can be like you're walking on eggshells a little bit, and that can drain people."

It all leads to one takeaway: Scheffler is different this year, and that was always going to happen. He's evolving. It’s unrealistic to expect anyone to maintain Scheffler’s pace of winning. Woods is the only one to do it in the modern era. Every other generational star has gone through blips. Scheffler is experiencing one, if you can even call it that.

When Scheffler tees off on Thursday morning, he will be the tournament favorite.

Even if things seem to be changing, that is still the same.