With the Open Championship mere hours away, Scottie Scheffler has received some bad news. The World No. 1 is coming off a disappointing outcome at the Genesis Scottish Open, where he failed to make the cut. And according to the founder of Read The Line, Keith Stewart, things might get all the more difficult this week. Speaking to Gary Williams on 5 Clubs, Stewart explained why.

“Strokes gained putting [will be the least valuable metric at the Open],” he said. “And the reason I say that is that all of that is based upon strokes gained putting over here on the PGA Tour domestically. And as we go over there, as we saw at the Scottish Open with the Fescue Grasses, I mean, take the number one player in the world, right? The only time he’s ever gained on the greens over there was Royal Portrush. 

“And we did see him win there. But before that, the Scottish, the British, Scotty doesn’t gain with the putter, and that’s a problem.”

🤔 golf trivia

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01/10

Which Former Champion Criticized DeChambeau's Open Championship Strategy?

Jack NicklausTiger WoodsTom WatsonNick Faldo

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‘Strokes Gained Putting (SG:P),’ of course, is the key golf metric widely used by the PGA Tour in the U.S. It measures how many strokes a player gains or loses on the greens relative to the tour average. Many analysts consider it far superior to older stats like putts per round. 

However, when it comes to links golf courses in Europe, like Royal Birkdale, SG:P’s baseline doesn’t match the actual conditions well. For Scottie Scheffler, who will defend his title this year at the Open, he gained +0.500 of a stroke on the greens per round this season, ranking him 14th on Tour.

At the 2026 Genesis Scottish Open, his overall putting performance dropped along with his approach play in the second round. This led him to lose strokes to the field and miss the cut. But as Stewart pointed out, Scheffler finished the tournament having gained roughly 8.5 strokes on the field with his putter, which was the best week of his career on the greens.

He holed putts at an elite rate, converting 59 of 63 putts inside 10 feet for the tournament. That doesn’t mean this year will be the same for the 30-year-old. The 2024 Open Championship was a major reminder that Scheffler can still cost himself defining opportunities on the green, as he finished 131st of 157 golfers at Troon in SG/putting. 

Scottie Scheffler, in the meantime, remains calm and nonchalant about the $17.7 million purse event, as he claimed he doesn’t really care about his legacy ahead of defending his title. 

“I have never once thought about how I’m going to be remembered,” he said during Wednesday’s press conference. “To me, it truly doesn’t matter from a sense of accomplishment. Like when I die, ‘hey, Scottie won four majors and 20 tournaments, and he won this much money’. That has zero effect on me.”

That said, numbers don’t always dictate how the rounds will play out. After all, no one expected the World No. 1 to miss the cut earlier this month.