Saturday at Riviera had something special for Scottie Scheffler. After visibly struggling for the first two days and barely making the cut, he carded his lowest round there, a blazing 66. You’d think this would change his relationship with the course, but not quite.

“At times, yeah, maybe a little bit, but then at times it still felt weird. If you’re going to go out early, I was glad to get a tee time this morning, get out early, and see what I can do. Obviously, I wanted to shoot a little bit lower, but overall, 5 under is pretty solid,” Scheffler noted post R3.

Scheffler teed off at 10:45 AM ET on Friday and was 4 over through just seven holes, but then he steadied himself with a par on the eighth and never looked back. His 5-under pushed him to 22nd place after 54 holes. However, the 29-year-old’s 2026 season coming into Riviera tells a story of resilience.

He has had slow starts on Thursdays, so much so that he was 10 shots back of the lead after 18 holes at both the WMPO and Pebble Beach. But then, he rallied to finish T-3 and T-4, respectively. He’s also riding a streak of 19 straight top-10s, too.

“I played 11 rounds the last few weeks, and I had eight pretty solid ones and three I’d like to have back,” he said. “Overall, I feel like my game’s in a good spot.”

As for Riviera, Scottie Scheffler shot a 3-over 74 in the first round. His first round was delayed and suspended by bad weather and went into Friday morning. But then, he shot 3-under 68 in the second round to get to even par for the week and make the cut, avoiding what would have been his first missed cut since the 2022 St. Jude Classic. Scheffler noted his struggles after round 2, saying that his relationship with Riviera is weird. He feels he can play so well out here but just hasn’t yet.

Do you know that Scheffler has the longest active streak of making cuts on the PGA Tour, with 68 in a row?

Tiger Woods holds the record at 142 from 1998 to 2005, with Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, and Jack Nicklaus all surpassing 100. Harris English sits second among active players at just 22 after Xander Schauffele’s 72-event cut streak was snapped at the Farmers Insurance Open.

Though Scheffler showed tremendous improvement, the scorecard recovery was only half the story. What happened between the shots tells a different tale entirely.

When Scottie Scheffler lost his cool at Riviera

Scottie Scheffler didn’t look like the world No. 1 who couldn’t be shaken through his first holes at Riviera. He was clearly furious after a double bogey on hole 8 on the first day. He yelled and slammed the door of a porta-potty. The outburst stood out for someone who is usually very consistent.

Sports psychologist Dr. Bhrett McCabe, who has worked with other golfers including Jon Rahm and Billy Horschel, was direct about what that kind of visible anger costs.

“There is no competitive advantage to my opponent seeing me get angry,” he said.

Letting frustration show, McCabe argued, only hands the edge to whoever is watching. But Scheffler is good at resetting quickly. His coach, Randy Smith, remembers that when he was a kid, he would lose matches, run away, and then come back ready to play in 15 minutes. Although the anger didn’t last long, the golf did the talking.

Scheffler gained 2.187 strokes on the field on the greens on Saturday, and that’s pretty decent, considering the difficulty of the surfaces. The greens at Riviera this week are very soft; however, the incredible speed of the surfaces makes it incredibly difficult to lag 20-30 footers within tap-in range. Scheffler will need to get his putter red-hot on Sunday if he is to continue his top-10 streak.