Smylie Kaufman has suggested the reason he believes Scottie Scheffler endured his third slow start in a row at this past week’s Genesis Invitational at Riviera.

It has been a huge surprise to see Scottie Scheffler struggle on Thursday at each of his last three starts on the PGA Tour.

Are you concerned about Scottie Scheffler right now?

He is really struggling with his first rounds right now…

Not concerned at all tbh. I think it’s much more likely he figures his first rounds out than it starts to become a problem in the other three. The rest of the game is in big trouble then!

He had to fight to make the cut at both the WM Phoenix Open and the Genesis Invitational. In fact, he was in last place on five over par through 10 holes when play was suspended for the opening day at Riviera.

Scheffler insisted that he is not worried about his slow starts. But it is baffling to see the world number one leave himself with so much work to do, particularly as he has responded so well each time.

Scottie Scheffler’s slow start at the Genesis Invitational explained

Perhaps there is a good reason behind his struggles in the Pacific Palisades.

Speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman suggested that anyone would find it extremely difficult in the conditions Scheffler was faced with when he teed off at Riviera.

“Dating back to the Phoenix Open, he was just off that day and it kind of felt like it was the irons that day. And then you move it a week later at Pebble Beach, also was the irons. Then fast forward to Riv this week, I will give him a little bit of credit here. I think he had the bad wave when it came to the Thursday tee times when it came to the restart that they had around 4 o’clock when they got back out there,” he said.

“Just one of those long days. I’m sure he had to warm up multiple times. He comes out, he has to play in gusty winds. Earlier in the day, sure it was a little windy, but it was more rain than anything and soft scoring conditions. When it comes to what the players dealt with on Thursday and a little bit of Friday, when you have gusty winds, soft fairways, soft greens and really fast, slopey greens, poa annua, that’s a really difficult combination, because when you have greens that are pitched back to front and you’re trying to take spin off the golf ball with wet ground, wet golf ball, guys are hitting these knockdown shots that are flying hole high, they’re ripping it back 40 feet. And then you throw in you might get a gust of 20 miles per hour back into your face to a back pin, you’re like, ‘how am I supposed to get this anywhere near the hole?’

“And it felt like to me that Scottie just got in some weird places, hit putts that just didn’t go in. The putting and the iron game was off, but I think a lot of it had to do with just being a weird, weird afternoon of weather that I thought was really challenging conditions.”

What Scottie Scheffler had not done since the 2021/22 season on the PGA Tour before Riviera

Scheffler has already failed to break 70 more often in his first four starts of 2026 than he did in his final eight events of 2025.

The 29-year-old was over par after the first round once last year – and that was at the US Open at Oakmont where he shot a 73. Of course, he went on to finish tied for seventh that week.

We have become so used to Scheffler breaking records whenever he tees it up, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that he has now done something that he has not done since the 2021/22 season on the PGA Tour.

That year was the last time that Scheffler was over par after the opening round more than once.

It is far too soon to panic. However, it is certainly strange to see Scheffler fail to find a way to fly out of the blocks.