Scottie Scheffler’s week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational was his poorest for strokes gained on approach in the field at a 72-hole tournament since The Players Championship in 2022. Yet that nadir four years ago preceded his breakthrough Masters triumph barely a month later.

The Players, however, stood as one of only two tournaments he failed to capture at the beginning of that campaign. His opening four PGA Tour victories arrived during this period.

Scheffler additionally ascended to world number one following his third triumph, the WGC Match Play. His inaugural success at Augusta National subsequently materialises.

EXPRESS SPORT ON FB! Get all the best sports news and much more on our Facebook page

On this occasion, the American has secured just one victory thus far this season, achieved on his opening appearance at The American Express. Nevertheless, he maintained top-12 finishes until his Bay Hill outing.

The world No. 1 placed 44th amongst all competitors in strokes gained, approach, and concluded tied for 24th overall at two under in Florida, reports the Mirror. Scheffler now sits 88th on the PGA Tour, dropping from 57th, after surrendering over 2.7 shots last week.

Scheffler, though, extracted some encouragement from his performance. Reflecting after Sunday’s final round, he remarked: “I hit my irons really nice. I wish I could have driven it a little bit better.

“Yeah, I got on the wrong side of a couple of things out there, which cost me some shots, but overall, I felt my iron play was pretty sharp today.

On using a new driver at Bay Hill, Scheffler said: “I feel like I saw some good things out of it. We’ll see going forward where I’ll be at.

“But overall, I definitely saw some good things from it this week.” He continued: “Really, today one of the things I was hoping to feel a little bit better about was my iron play, and I got out there, and I hit a lot of really, really nice iron shots.

“Some worked out, others got some wind shifts. But overall, I felt like I struck it really nicely today, which was an improvement I was hoping to see after yesterday (Saturday).”

Looking ahead to The Players, a tournament he won in 2023 and 2024, Scheffler said: “You’ve got to strike it well. Around that golf course, when you’re hitting the ball in the right spots, you can shoot some low scores.

“I think the greens will definitely be a little bit different than they are this weekend, with it being overseed. It could be more of a take spin-off week, where this week it’s trying to add spin, so, yeah, get used to that as the week goes on.”

Ensure our latest sport headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings