Scottie Scheffler’s Old Nemesis Costs Him U.S. Open Chance

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler couldn’t assert his favoritism at the 2025 US Open, despite adding another top-10 finish in major championships to his extraordinary resume. This time, it wasn’t a last-minute issue, but rather what has been his nemesis throughout his career: his putting.

Scheffler struggled to stay in contention during the first three rounds, and although he started the fourth round seven strokes behind the leader, he still felt in position to fight for the title. The final round proved that this would have been true had he had better luck with the putter.

The world’s top-ranked golfer posted a negative strokes-gained-putting score during the fourth round (-0.7), ranking 43rd out of the 66 players who finished. In contrast, he was one of the best at approaching the green, gaining 3.83 strokes, which allowed him to complete the round with just 1.8 putts per hole despite his putting issues.

However, these statistics could have been much better. Scheffler missed eight putts from inside 15 feet during the fourth round, which was key to him finishing five strokes behind champion JJ Spaun.

“A few more putts drop today, I think it’s a little different story,” Scheffler said.

“My first three days, I felt like I was battling the whole time. Today I hit some shots. I hit some putts that I really thought were going in, hit some lips.”

“It was just challenging. There was a lot of pitch on the greens and you got to do a lot right in order to hole putts. I was just right on the edge today.”

During the fourth round, it’s fair to say that Scheffler suffered from one of his greatest strengths: driving. The three-time major champion lost strokes off the tee (-0.86) and hit only seven of the 14 fairways he played.

“My main takeaway is I battled as hard as I did this week,” he said.

“I was really proud mentally of how I was over the course of four days. I did a lot of things out there that could really kind of break a week, and I never really got that one good break that kind of propels you.”

“I’d hit it this far off, and seemingly every time I did, I was punished pretty severely for it.”

Scottie Scheffler improved as the U.S. Open progressed, carding rounds of 73, 71, 70, and 70 to finish tied for seventh at 4-over. This marks his 15th top-10 finish in 24 major championship appearances, his fourth consecutive top 10 finish, and his ninth in the last three seasons.

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