Ryan Lavner gives his verdict on Scottie Scheffler’s behaviour at The Memorial as golf fans told to watch him closely

Scottie Scheffler certainly had a mixed week at the Memorial Tournament as he recovered from an extremely slow start to finish just outside the top 10 at Muirfield Village.

Scheffler was looking to become only the second man after Tiger Woods to win the Memorial Tournament in three successive years this past week.

Unfortunately, the 29-year-old left himself with plenty of work to do at Jack’s Place just to make the cut. At one stage, he was four over par for the tournament and in serious trouble of missing his first cut on the PGA Tour since 2022.

Scottie Scheffler’s actions at the Memorial Tournament have been defended

Scottie Scheffler appeared as though he wanted to be anywhere else after finding the water off the tee on the 16th hole during Thursday’s opening round.

The world number one was livid having felt that he had hit a great shot. And it did appear that Ted Scott bore the brunt of the anger, with Scheffler clearly baffled by how his ball had ended up in the water.

It was not a good look from Scheffler. And it definitely did appear that he was not at all happy with his caddie for not realising that the wind had switched.

But speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Ryan Lavner insisted that Scheffler was not pinning all of the blame on Scott.

“First of all, that was not Scottie berating his caddie Ted Scott. It was Scottie venting. And I don’t know why this went viral,” he said.

“I guess it was viral in the sense that it was atypical of Scottie’s behaviour, but it really isn’t. If you watch Scottie through a round, there’s a lot of muttering. He’s bending Ted Scott’s ear on many occasions.

“This was not him berating Ted Scott that he got the wind wrong. They both got the wind wrong. Scottie’s not completely immune for making decisions like, ‘oh, nope, this is on you completely’. This is a team effort and they got it wrong. Yes, he felt like he was hitting good shots. But that was sort of the uncommon thread of Scottie Scheffler’s Memorial Tournament, where this was as scrappy and as sloppy as I’ve seen him in a long time with his ball striking, particularly with his iron play.

“When you look ahead to the U.S. Open, knowing he’s going to need to be sharper, knowing that those targets he’s going to be hitting into on Shinnecock’s notoriously difficult greens, he’s going to have to be more precise than what we saw if he’s going to catch the final leg of the Career Grand Slam.”

The worry for Scottie Scheffler as the final two majors of the year emerge on the horizon

For much of the season, there has been a feeling that all of Scheffler’s rivals are in big trouble once everything clicks for him.

He has not finished outside the top 25, while he has registered a top three finish six times already. And yet, he does not appear to be anywhere near his very best.

The concern for Scheffler will be that we are around halfway through the season now. There are just two majors left, while there is only one signature event still to play.

It did take him some time to start winning in 2025. He went on to enjoy another phenomenal season.

The worry is that we have spent so long waiting for that moment when everything falls into place for Scheffler in 2026. He must be starting to fear that it may not happen until it is too late.