PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — There’s a narrative that’s slowly been developing in golf at the moment that Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 player for the past three-plus years, is slumping in 2026.
And you know how narratives go. The narrative stays the narrative until it’s either proven otherwise or the subject of the narratives shuts it down.
Scheffler politely tried to do that Tuesday, two days before he tees it up in the first round of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.
The sample size isn’t exactly large, but Scheffler has had issues this year with opening rounds, failing to break 70 in any of his previous four tournaments.