SAN DIEGO — A horrible break on a bad drive, followed by one of the most cagey uses of the rules we’ll ever see, highlighted the opening half hour of Scottie Scheffler’s second round of the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines. Call it a very “Scottie” par.
MORE: The weather was bad and Scottie Scheffler remains very good
People say, “Golf is hard”
Scottie Scheffler: pic.twitter.com/xVnrSyin6A
— TrackingScheffler (@SchefflerLegion) February 14, 2025
Starting on the 10th tee on the South Course in third place after the opening round, under bright sunshine after heavy overnight rains cleared, the World No. 1 hit a bad pull of his tee shot on the 215-yard par-3 11th. The ball went over the greenside gallery and took a couple of high kicks off the cart path and ended up 50 yards past the pin in rough near the 12th tee box.
At minimum, bogey seemed highly likely from there, but hold on …
When Scheffler arrived at his ball and addressed it, with a rules official on hand and caddie Ted Scott offering advice, his backside butted him up against a large water cooler box on the tee. That allowed Scheffler to take a drop from the rough onto the edge of the short grass of the tee. If that wasn’t good enough, he then got to take a second drop because the cooler was in the way of his follow through AND Scheffler got to place the ball on the ground because they are playing “preferred lies.”
Orlando Pope, the on-site PGA Tour official for the broadcast, confirmed that everything Scheffler did was within the rules.
Of course, from there Scheffler did Scottie things. He hit a brilliant wedge that found the green and trickled to about 4 feet, and from there he made the putt for a highly entertaining par.
It was a fascinating watch, and yet another example we’ll laugh about in our weekly foursome about the breaks tour players get that we’ll never enjoy because we don’t play with grandstands and water coolers.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
