After a commanding win at The American Express in his first tournament of the season, Scottie Scheffler arrived at the 2026 WM Phoenix Open as a two-time tournament champion with many handing him the trophy before the event even began. A birdie on Scheffler’s opening hole only emphasised that concept, but that was as good as it would get for the world No. 1 golfer, who ultimately signed for a 2-over 73, his first round over par since June 2025.
Scheffler snapped a streak of 33 straight rounds of par or better on the PGA Tour over the last eight months. Only one of those rounds was in the 70s, his opening 18 holes at the Procore Championship (70), an event he ultimately won. The run dated back to the third round of the Travelers Championship last June, where Scheffler signed for a 2-over 72 at TPC River Highlands.
Paying partner Chris Gotterup opened his tournament with a bogey-free 63 to grab the first-round lead and clip the best player in the world by 10 strokes. That marked the first time Scheffler has been beaten by 10 strokes or more in a round by a playing partner since Rickie Fowler did so at the 2021 Texas Open, per Justin Ray.
Scheffler put five birdies, five bogeys and a double bogey on his scorecard Thursday morning. He did not make his first par on a par 4 until the fifth hole — his 14th hole since he teed off on the back nine. Known as the king of the rebound, he experienced the opposite effect as three of his birdies were followed by bogeys.
Despite some early struggles, Scheffler still found himself 2 under through his first eight holes thanks to taking advantage of both par 5s on the back nine and the drivable par-4 17th. Only then did the wheels fall off. Around the turn, he went bogey, bogey, double bogey thanks to self-inflicted wounds like missing short putts, leaving chips at his feet and being out of position. One last bogey was pencilled onto the scorecard on the par-4 8th when he once again saw a chip climb towards the pin only to come back to his feet.
To say it was an uncharacteristic day for Scheffler would be an understatement. He battled the left miss off the tee — Scheffler found the water with the driver on No. 11 — struggled with distance control with his irons and even mishit some, looking uncomfortable with shots around the green.
He will have an opportunity to screw the wheels back on Friday and claw his way toward the cutline. After Xander Schauffele’s early exit at last week’s Farmers Insurance Open, Scheffler now holds the longest active made-cut streak on the PGA Tour.