Scottie Scheffler would like to make one thing perfectly clear. He did not fire a golf ball into a gallery of unsuspecting fans at Riviera Country Club. “I did not throw the ball into the crowd,” Scheffler said, correcting a long-misremembered moment from two years ago on Riviera’s 11th hole. The truth is far less scandalous but far more revealing. Frustrated after another missed putt, Scheffler launched his ball into the nearby woods, not toward spectators, but deep into the trees, as if he were shagging fly balls in right field for the Texas Rangers.
“The trees were OK,” he added with a laugh.
A Scottie Scheffler Streak That Defies Modern Golf
The moment now feels like a footnote in what has otherwise become a historic stretch of dominance. The world No. 1 arrives at this week’s Genesis Invitational riding a streak that borders on the improbable: 18 consecutive top-10 finishes. Within that run are seven victories and not a single result worse than a tie for eighth. In an era defined by parity and razor-thin margins, that level of consistency stands out as almost unfathomable.
This season alone, Scheffler has opened with a win, followed by a tie for third and a tie for fourth, both achieved despite uncharacteristically slow starts. Even when his game appears slightly out of rhythm, the results remain elite. It is not merely that he contends; it is that he rarely drifts outside striking distance.
Yet, despite its dominance, Riviera has remained curiously resistant.
Riviera: The Course That Refuses to Yield
Scheffler’s history at Riviera stretches back nearly a decade. In 2017, he missed the match-play cut at the U.S. Amateur after a crushing 13-for-8 playoff defeat sealed by a double bogey on the 10th hole. A year later, he missed the Genesis cut as an amateur. As a professional, he has been steady but unspectacular: four top-20 finishes in five starts, including three top-12s. Still, he has never finished within six shots of the winner.
He’s not alone in that struggle. Scheffler, Tiger Woods, and Rory McIlroy have combined for 27 starts at Riviera without a victory, more than at any other Tour venue.
On paper, the course appears manageable.
“I think it’s an interesting golf course because there aren’t really many hazards,” Scheffler explained. Unlike venues dominated by water or punishing out-of-bounds lines, Riviera presents fewer obvious dangers. But that simplicity proves deceptive.
“You hit a ball in the rough on 2 and you’re like, ‘Man this hole is kind of hard.’ Then you don’t hit the fairway on 3 and you’re like, ‘Oh, shoot, I don’t know how I am going to hit the ball on the green here,’ and then the golf course just eats away at you over time.”
The Subtle Details That Matter Most
Statistically, Scheffler has done much right at Riviera. He has led the field in strokes gained off the tee and around the green. Twice, he has ranked inside the top 30 in putting. The missing ingredient has often been his approach to play, remarkably, given his reputation as perhaps the most dominant iron player on Tour. He has cracked the top 10 in approach just once here, in 2022, when he finished tied for seventh.
He attributes much of the challenge to Riviera’s kikuyu grass and its architecturally intricate, sloping greens. The surface demands precision not only in ball striking but in trajectory and spin control, forcing even elite iron players to recalibrate.
“The grass provides a different set of challenges than we see throughout the rest of the year,” Scheffler said. “This golf course can be about as frustrating to play as any on Tour, just with the little tricks that it has to it.”
Frustration once sent a golf ball sailing into the trees. Now, it fuels a pursuit of mastery. And if execution truly earns its reward at Riviera, as Scheffler maintains, then the most dominant player in the world may finally be poised to turn a course of near-misses into a defining victory.
