Scottie Scheffler’s win streak ends at two, but he extends personal streak at Charles Schwab Challenge

Scottie Scheffler has notched four straight top-five finishes at the Charles Schwab Challenge, but a victory at Colonial keeps eluding him.

Scheffler closed in 1-under 69 to share fourth place at 8-under 272, four strokes back of winner Ben Griffin, who closed in 71. Scheffler made the cut by one stroke, slowed by a second-round 71, but moved onto the precipice of contention with a third-round 64 that slotted him six off the lead into Sunday. But the world No. 1 remained stuck in neutral on a windy final day at the venerable Fort Worth, Texas, venue, and hence his PGA TOUR winning streak ended at two.

This wasn’t a break from his elite form, other than a slower week on the greens. It’s just a reminder that winning on TOUR is very hard – and maybe sometimes we take Scheffler’s mind-bending winning percentage for granted.

“I had a really good weekend. I did some good stuff,” Scheffler said Sunday afternoon. “I think Friday probably hurt me in terms of winning this tournament, but overall, three of the four days I played what I felt was pretty solid. Just had one off day, but outside of that, I did some good things this week as well.”

Scheffler failed to earn a third straight PGA TOUR title after wins at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson (by eight strokes) and the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow (by five strokes); no player has won three straight TOUR starts since 2017. Scheffler’s esteemed ball-striking was plenty good enough to win at Colonial; he ranked eighth in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and led the field in SG: Approach the Green, gaining more than seven strokes on the field with his iron play. But the putter didn’t fully cooperate as he ranked No. 56 in SG: Putting, which kept him from making enough birdies to seriously contend down the stretch (his 13 birdies ranked 28th in the field; he also made two eagles).

Scheffler loves Colonial in both ambience (it’s a home game) and the precision test it presents. This weekend’s firm greens required players to be strategic in their misses, and scoring gradually slowed as the tournament progressed. Ultimately, those challenging conditions made it difficult for anyone to make a Sunday surge, including Scheffler.

“I feel like I could have scored a little better today,” Scheffler added. “Overal,l it was a really challenging day.”

In 2022, Scheffler fell in a Charles Schwab Challenge playoff to his close friend Sam Burns. In 2023, he shared third, one back of a playoff won by Emiliano Grillo. Last year, he shared second place but finished five back of the winner Davis Riley.

Across the past four Charles Schwab Challenges, only six players have bested Scheffler for 72 holes. He has played strong golf, but it hasn’t been good enough to win – a reminder of the TOUR’s depth and a reminder of how impressive his winning clip has been (15 TOUR titles since 2022).

Scheffler is still in form. He’ll be one of the clear-cut favorites next week at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, where he’ll defend his title from 2024. Two weeks later, he’ll take aim at the third leg of the career Grand Slam at the U.S. Open at Oakmont. The stakes remain high and aren’t slowing down anytime soon. Nor is he leaving leaderboards anytime soon