Scottie Scheffler won’t win The Players. But it revealed something unusual

Scottie Scheffler knows the Players Championship is out of reach. Even after a bogey-free, five-under 67, World No. 1 is too far back at TPC Sawgrass to be a factor coming Sunday.

“Not unless it starts blowing like 30 miles an hour,” Scheffler said with a laugh when asked if he still has a chance to win his third Players.

Scheffler has not been himself this week. At least, he hasn’t been the relentless world beater that golf has been for the last few years. He struggled with the driver, although that was better on Saturday. His normal game has continued to dip, moving him from historically murderous to righteous indeed good. The putter was hot and cold, and his typical short game left something to be desired.

After a sloppy first round that saw Scheffler struggle for the right to miss the tee, the World No. 1 went straight to practice on the TPC Sawgrass range and hit balls for hours in the rain. Scheffler will tell you he wasn’t “looking” for anything. The search means something is “missing,” and that’s not Scheffler. He works, he grinds. But are you searching? No.

It would be easy to look at this week for Scheffler, where he still sits outside the 20 and has been spending a lot of time on the rough and wooded areas of TPC Sawgrass, as a lost week. Scheffler has won the tournament twice. He is a four-time major champion who has been everywhere on the leaderboards even when he brings his C game. He is at a point in his career where his results are considered binary: win or lose. It is a rare sight to see the regular Scheffler fighting for the ball to go where he wants when he is not a contender for championships.

But this is also where one of the important reasons for his greatness is illuminated.

Before the tournament, Scheffler was asked how he handles his expectations. The winnings have rolled in like a flood in the last few years. He excelled in all kinds of subjects, in all kinds of ways. The odds were slim, but he came into the Players Championship having gone T12-T24 in his last two games. Expectations, especially internal ones, can be an anchor when he gets big. They can eat you if you let them.

But Scheffler, amid mild irritation at the suggestion that his game was not up to his level, explained that he was looking at everything, all thisby using a different lens. There are expectations, yes, but it’s not clear about the competition. Results are important, but Scheffler focuses on micro, controlling everything he can. That is the foundation of what he built.

“I think that’s a funny question, because if you flip over my season, what did I finish last week? Like 24th or something – 24th and 12th, like 3rd and 4th, and a win. Would your question be the same if I went 3rd, 4th, won?” Scheffler said Tuesday at TPC Sawgrass. “That’s my point. It’s like what you expect from me happens every week. What you expect from me is almost like being shot.

“When it comes to my golf game and what I expect from myself, my expectations are all based on what I want from myself mentally on the golf course like committing to what I can do, and controlling that aspect.”

For Scheffler, greatness is the result of that process. That process is based on emotion. That’s why he’s always on the artist side of the golf professional debate. He will look at statistics and numbers, but only if they match his feelings. He trusted his instincts more than data. Range periods aren’t so much about fixing the problem as they are about rearranging things for Scheffler it. That leads to control, which is reflected in the results.

“My feelings are what I trust the most,” Scheffler said. “So, like there’s been certain situations in my career where I might have had a really good round, and I’m down on the golf course again. [coach Randy Smith] he’ll go, ‘Good job, that was great.’ And I’ll be like, We have to go to the driving range. Like, this won’t work for a few more days. ”

Of course, part of Scheffler’s process is the need to focus on the feeling – on each turn – rather than acknowledging any big, looming problems lest they continue to manifest. He tells himself that he doesn’t want anything because admitting that he is “lost” can lead to a downward spiral that can be very difficult to resolve. Part of the gig for generational athletes is having unwavering confidence even when the evidence points to the contrary – believing that you can control everything and, in doing so, shape reality to your will.

That unique dimension was on display this week at TPC Sawgrass as Scheffler marched to the end of what many might see as a lost week in the zero-sum game of elite professional golf. But for Scheffler, there can be no wasted exchange. You can get something out of everything, win or lose, and that can pay off later.

This week is no different.

“I think about how I hit it the first few days, having the attitude that I had and the fight that I did, I think that – when I look at the competitions, I don’t think about winning, I think about doing things the right way,” Scheffler said on Saturday. “I did my best to stay committed and I did a good job thinking about keeping the right attitude and keeping my head on straight so I could grind through a couple of tough rounds. … So overall I think I’ve been in a good place as far as my attitude and dedication has been in my shooting. So that, for me, is a good week.”

Scheffler has one more round of TPC Sawgrass to go. The title he has lifted twice will not wait for him when he is done. Not at this time. Scheffler’s Players Championship has been surprising at times to those of us accustomed to his unrelenting greatness.

But for him, it was a successful week in his process – one defined by the feeling and not the total of four days. Which allows him to decide where he is or not.