DUBLIN, Ohio — A little golf secret for you: Know how to tell when a PGA Tour player is really, really good? When he can laugh at his bad swings, poor putts and shanked bunker shots after a round from hell.
Or in Scottie Scheffler’s case, purgatory. The top-ranked player in the world saved himself from the eternal fire of a missed cut by grinding out three birdies and three pars over his last six holes at the Memorial Tournament on Friday to extend his consecutive cuts made streak to 76, fifth-longest in tour history.
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Escaping the dreaded golf demon – a missed cut – wasn’t easy, but no burn, no foul.
Scottie Scheffler plays his shot from the fairway on the 18th hole during the second round of the 2026 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club.
Still, Scheffler the Great was Scottie the Not-so-Great for the majority of his second round at Muirfield Village Golf Club. The 29-year-old had the audacity to show us he is human, after all.
But since Scheffler is really, really good, he was able to laugh off – OK, it was more like self-mocking – what for him was a rare shaky performance. The end result, an even-par 72, was far from horrible, but how the round began and how it finished resembled Beauty and the Beast in reverse. Beast: After 10 holes, the two-time defending Memorial winner was 3 over on the day and 4 over for the tournament, with the cutline hovering at 3 over. It eventually landed at 5 over. Beauty: Over the last eight holes, he was 3 under, finishing at 1 over for the tournament.
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“I thought I was going to shoot about 90 today,” he said, managing a chuckle. “If you were out watching my group, I was going to be hard to find.”
Missing half the fairways will do that, as the 4-inch rough is so thick, it threatens to gobble up anything – or anyone – whose drives and irons fly offline.
“I was in the rough or off the green for basically every single hole until 13,” he said.
Scottie Scheffler rallies on back nine to make cut
Again, very un-Scottie-like, but the way he grinded it out on the back nine was impressively Tiger-like. Woods, who owns the consecutive cuts made record (142), had many chances to mail it in during his career when playing into the weekend appeared out of reach, but more often than not, he dug deeper to make the cut. Respect.
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Similarly, Scheffler turned on the jets when it looked like he would miss his first cut since the 2020 FedEx St. Jude Invitational.
“I think I grind like that every day, just part of the game, [but] that was some of the worst I’ve hit it in a couple years and still managed to shoot even par on a golf course that requires you to strike the ball really well,” he said. “I’m definitely very proud of stuff like that. This tournament is one that could have gotten away from me, but I’m only nine shots back [now 10 behind J.T. Poston] and a chance to go to the weekend.”
The turnaround began with a birdie at the 13th hole, which righted a sinking ship.
“Hit a nice wedge in there,” he said. “At 14, I hit another nice wedge in there, and was able to hit a few shots down the stretch to give myself a couple looks. Holed a long one on 16 that felt like stealing one, and pars on 17 and 18 today is a good score.”
Scottie Scheffler tees off on the second hole during the second round of the 2026 Memorial Tournament.
“Around this golf course, with heavy rough and deep bunkers, you have to hit the ball in the right spots, and for a long time today that definitely was not the case for me.”
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What changed for the better?
“I’m about to go find out,” he said before heading to the practice range.
Scheffler immediately went to range to fix a wonky swing
About to go find out? Uh-oh. It may be nothing or may be everything. It sounds counterintuitive, but the worst place for a golfer to be with his game is not knowing why things went right, as they did for Scheffler on the back nine. In other words, it’s easier to fix obvious swing flaws than fix “lucky” positive results.
But Scheffler is a qualified mechanic of his swing. Proof? Making 76 cuts in a row. If anyone can fix what’s wrong or discover why it’s right, it is the tall Texan with the sense of humor who knows in golf it’s better to laugh than cry.
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Sports columnist Rob Oller can be reached at roller@dispatch.com and on X.com at @rollerCD.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Scottie Scheffler makes 76th straight cut at 2026 Memorial Tournament
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