Scottie Scheffler corrects a glitch in his grip and rallies to be a weekend factor in Phoenix

After a one-day hiccup, Scottie Scheffler, having made a rather intuitive self-diagnosis of his swing problems during an opening 73 on Thursday in the opening round of the WM Phoenix Open, is on the prowl again at TPC Scottsdale.

Piffle, you say? Well, hold on just one minute.

Granted, the world No. 1 player still languishes in a tie for 28th place at four-under 138 and trails leader Ryo Hisatsune (63) by seven strokes through 36 holes. But look at it this way: Scheffler was 10 behind Chris Gotterup after the opening round. He’s gaining. His bogey-free 6-under 65 was just the kind of can-do, gut-check effort you’d expect from the game’s best player.

Seven strokes is not an enormous deficit to overcome with 36 to play. Now, if he were, say, nine shots in arrears, he might have a prob … wait, never mind. In 2022, Scheffler captured his first PGA Tour title here by making up that number of strokes. Later that same season, he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational after trailing by eight through two rounds.

His tour-best streak of 65 consecutive cuts made appeared in jeopardy after his shockingly sloppy opening round that included two chunked chip shots. “I almost was so discouraged I almost didn't even want to go practice,” Scheffler, 29, admitted. “I went out there, and it was well worth it.”

Indeed. He had an epiphany: a small adjustment in his left-hand grip that helped him get his hand underneath the club. He lost strokes in all the ball-striking categories in the first round, an almost unfathomable performance. On Friday, he was on the plus side again, including nearly two strokes (plus 1.927) in approach to the green.

“I’ve been a proponent of saying you can't really find it during the tournament week, but I found a little something in my grip yesterday that seemed to really help me get my hands more securely on the club,” Scheffler said with a grin. “Struck it much better today. Yeah, felt a bit lost out there at times yesterday, so today felt a lot better. Felt more in control of my game. You can obviously see that through the cleaner card today.”

The Texas native still has a lot of cleaning up to do. He’ll have to dig deep to earn his 21st tour victory. Seven shots is still a sizable hole. But momentum is on his side, as if he needed more ammunition.

“It was nice to get into a groove today,” he said. “I didn't hit it that good on the front nine. Making the turn I struck it really well. Stuck it really well on the back nine.”

Uh oh.