For the last two years, Muirfield Village felt like Scottie Scheffler’s personal property. But this week tested him in every possible way. Yet, he remained optimistic. After all, at Muirfield, the board changes quickly. Stuck with missed short putts and hazards, however, he watched the lead group pull away. When asked about his game, he did not hold back.

“Overall, I would say pretty frustrating, but the way I played the last two days, I definitely feel a lot better with kind of where things are at than I did coming off the course on Friday. I just wasn’t sharp enough to make the big move that I needed to make,” the World No. 1 told the media on June 7

The numbers back that up.

Scheffler ranked 59th out of 72 players in Strokes Gained: Approach, losing more than two shots to the field. He finished with nine bogeys and one double bogey across four rounds.

He also described moments where momentum was building and then quickly unraveled, like a three-putt on 11 followed by finding the back bunker on 12, where holding the green seems nearly impossible. A wayward iron into the hazard on 14 only added to the damage done. By his own admission, these were not the mistakes he typically makes, and cleaning them up will be his priority.

Those small errors connect to a broader concern that Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee raised ahead of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson last month.

“He’s been missing an inordinate number of short putts this year,” Chamblee said. “There are something almost 60 players on tour who hadn’t missed a three-footer all year long. Some of them had made 450 out of 450. It’s rare when tour players miss a three-footer, but it certainly wasn’t rare for Scottie Scheffler at Aronimink, and it hasn’t been rare this year.

“He can’t afford those misses given that he’s slightly off his game this year in terms of ball striking.”

At the Memorial, Scheffler’s SG: Putting came in at 0.336, ranked 32nd in the field. He averaged 1.79 putts per green in regulation, ranked 39th. Notably, the week had its share of complications.

Difficult wind and firm conditions made the rounds brutal, and Saturday brought two storm suspensions that wiped out most of Round 3. He was on the cut line in Round 2, birdied three holes on the back nine to make the weekend, and his cut streak now stands at 76, the longest active on tour.

The Memorial Tournament result fits into a longer pattern this season. Despite competing nearly every week, Scheffler has not won since the American Express in late January. He was a runner-up at the Masters, T14 at the PGA Championship, and T22 at THE PLAYERS Championship. That is certainly contending, but not converting.

Even the three-peat at Muirfield Village is done. A course where he had won back-to-back and looked untouchable handed him a T12 and a list of things to fix. Scheffler heads into an off week knowing exactly what needs work, and Shinnecock is where all of it gets tested. He said he wants to keep seeing the right shots and trust what he is building. For a player one major away from the career Grand Slam, that off week just became the most important week of his season.

The frustration at the Memorial, though, had been brewing since Thursday.

Scottie Scheffler’s caddie row at 16 set the tone early

The opening round at Muirfield Village had already soured before Scheffler reached the par-3 16th. His tee shot found the water, not because of a poor swing, but because the wind shifted at the worst possible moment. A hot mic caught everything that followed between him and caddie Ted Scott. Scheffler told reporters the wind changed from down off the right to significantly in off the right mid-flight.

“If it’s down off the right, that ball’s probably where I hit my wedge shot to,” he said.

His argument was simple: the shot was right, the read was wrong, and that distinction mattered to him.

The cameras caught him telling Scott, “I don’t know what to do,” followed by, “I’m hitting good shots and now dropping from hazards. You cannot get the wind wrong.”

It was the kind of raw, unscripted moment that seldom emerges from one of the most composed players on tour.

A double bogey on 16 put him at 1-over for the day, and the week never quite recovered from that. With the US Open at Shinnecock starting June 18, the question now is whether one off week is enough to sort the iron play, tighten the short putting, and fix the small errors he openly admitted to.