Scottie Scheffler seems to have a first-round problem because it has cost him the chance to bag the first three events he’s played in 2026. At the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, he had a spectacular final-round 63, one that screamed classic Scheffler with unrelenting ball-striking. That’s the thing about golf, though. Despite sheer brilliance, he fell short. And here’s what he had to say.

“Sometimes it’s just scoring stuff,” Scheffler said after finishing T4, two shots behind the leader, Collin Morikawa. “Like we came around here the first round and I looked at Teddy about the 15th, 16th hole, and like, I feel like I’m doing kind of good and I’m like 10 shots back. It’s a funny game. Sometimes, like things go your way, and sometimes things don’t.”

He specifically noted the role of putting variance on Pebble Beach’s bumpy Poa Annua greens:

“Like today’s the day where I holed a lot of putts from 10, 20 feet. On greens like this, there’s a lot of suspense when the ball’s rolling up to the hole. The beginning of the week, those putts weren’t falling, and they all decided to go in today, so it’s just a funny game.”

His journey began with a messy 72 on Thursday, leaving him 10 shots behind the leader. He missed every single putt longer than eight feet and fought a muddy ball on the second hole. However, he came back with rounds of 66 and 67 to give himself a tiny chance. After that, Sunday became a ‘wolf game’ where he hunted every pin with precision. He grabbed eagles on the second, sixth, and eighteenth holes during a record-breaking round of 63.

Despite Sunday’s berserk, Scottie Scheffler kept his amazing streak of eighteen straight top-10 finishes very much alive, and it’s no less historic. But this slow start and fast finish has become a regular event for the world’s best player lately. He often struggles on Thursdays only to transform into a scoring machine during the critical weekend rounds.

It happened in the American Express, where he chased down the leaders on Sunday to win by six shots. Just last week in Phoenix, it happened again. He rose from eighty-ninth place to finish in a tie for third.

“These are the weeks that I’m pretty proud of at the end of the week. Just because it’s been, I mean, felt like I’ve been battling all week just to give myself a chance, and then to have some special stuff happen today to put myself in the clubhouse with maybe a chance is always nice,” Scheffler noted, reflecting on these weeks.

While Scheffler provided the fireworks, Collin Morikawa achieved a feat he had been chasing for over two years.

Collin Morikawa snaps the drought and gets his long-awaited revenge

Collin Morikawa entered the week having gone 45 starts without a win, with his last trophy coming at the 2023 Zozo Championship. His world ranking had slipped to No. 19 as he struggled to maintain momentum and “go low” during a frustrating 2025 season. But as soon as he was getting his form back, Morikawa issued a bold challenge to Scottie Scheffler before the final round began.

“I feel like I can play against the top players in the world, even a guy like Scottie Scheffler when he’s playing great. Like, you know, I still believe that and until the day I don’t, I’m going to keep going at it head-on,” he said after shooting a 10-under-par 62 during the third round at Pebble Beach.

Over the last two years, Scheffler solidified his spot as the most dominant player, frequently outlasting challengers (most notably Morikawa) in head-to-head scenarios. Most notably in the 2024 Memorial Tournament, Morikawa was in the final pairing with Scheffler on Sunday, making a strong charge to reduce a four-stroke deficit to just one on the 16th hole. However, Scheffler secured the victory.

But this time in the final round of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Morikawa held his nerve and took the solo lead with a 30-foot uphill birdie on the 15th. Then he added another birdie on the 16th to move two clear. And despite a scare on the 17th, where his ball nearly found the ocean, he survived with a bogey. On the 18th, after a grueling 20-minute wait on the fairway due to a backup, he made a birdie for a one-shot victory in the 80-player field.

And this is how Morikawa ended his trophy drought.