2022 Players Championship: Top 10 power rankings at TPC Sawgrass

Scottie Scheffler missed the cut in his Players Championship debut. That’s about the only negative thing I’ll say about him on this slide.

In his defense, TPC Sawgrass is a tough nut to crack on the first try. Plus, he improved from a 74 on Thursday to a 71 on Friday last year to only MC by one.

With Scheffler’s first two career PGA Tour wins coming in the last month, the Texan should be brimming with confidence in his return to Ponte Vedra Beach.

The 25-year-old won in February at the WM Phoenix Open by defeating a red hot Patrick Cantlay in a playoff. Scheffler got it done in regulation last week by conquering a challenging Bay Hill set up to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational by one over Viktor Hovland, Billy Horschel, and Tyrrell Hatton.

Scheffler fired 70-73-68-72. His 283 total was the second-highest winning score since 1983.

It might not be a bad idea to put in your U.S. Open futures bets right now.

“Kind of went into today thinking I need to shoot maybe a couple under, and it turns out even was good enough,” Scheffler was transcribed by ASAP Sports. “The way the greens are, making putts out here is so hard. There’s not a lot of friction on the greens, and with the way the wind is blowing, any little bit of a gust has such an extreme effect on the golf ball. It’s so difficult.”

The former Texas Longhorn led the field at Bay Hill in strokes gained approach (8.062) and was fourth in putts per green in regulation (1.636).

Scheffler’s recorded three top-10s in a row with a T-7th at the Genesis Invitational sandwiched in between his two wins.

He’s finished inside the top 25 six times in a row and has made eight cuts in a row going back to last fall.

Scheffler is up to a career-high fifth in the Official World Golf Rankings.

He ranks fourth on the PGA Tour in total strokes gained (1.757) and 15th both in SG approach (.688) and tee to green (1.148).

Course familiarity is an important factor this week, but Scheffler is too talented to worry too much about only having one Players start.