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Scottie Scheffler continued his remarkable run of results in 2025 by finishing tied for fourth at the Hero World Challenge – but the world number one will know that it could have been so much better at Albany.

Heading into the final round, it appeared that Scottie Scheffler was well placed to win the Hero World Challenge for a third straight year.

Scheffler found himself just one shot adrift of overnight leader Sepp Straka. However, the final group endured plenty of problems on Sunday, allowing Hideki Matsuyama and Alex Noren to jump ahead.

How many shots would Scottie Scheffler beat Tiger Woods by in an 18-hole stroke play match?

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Matsuyama would go on to win with a birdie in the playoff.

Scheffler, meanwhile, looked extremely rusty at times.

Brandel Chamblee left surprised by Scottie Scheffler at the Hero World Challenge

The 29-year-old’s challenge looked to be all but over after the par five 11th hole. Scheffler left himself just under 300 yards into the green after a brilliant drive.

He decided to try and hit a driver off the fairway. However, there was a speck of mud on the front of his ball. With that, Scheffler’s ball hooked 30 yards left of the green and under a bush. He would end up making a bogey.

And speaking on the Golf Channel, Brandel Chamblee suggested that he could not quite believe how many poor decisions Scheffler seemed to make.

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“Go back to finishing up yesterday [in the third round] at the 18th. I think this is a mental mistake. We saw him make more mental mistakes this week than I think I have ever seen him make. Play at the fat of the green. If you over-cut it, you get it close. You get it close when you miss,” he said.

“Clearly, he’s going right at it, pushed it a bit, so his dispersion, right part of his cone, puts him in a spot where he’s unlikely to get up and down. Made bogey.

“And today, I’ve never seen him make a worse mental mistake than he made today. There was mud on the front of that ball. He takes driver off the deck. Tiger Woods up in the commentary booth later said, ‘well, I’d probably have taken an iron, hit it low, punched it down there, try and scuff off that mud’. But instead, a birdie opportunity gone awry. He makes bogey.

“And then again at the 12th, a rare, poor iron shot where he short-sides himself. I don’t recall him short-siding himself as often as he did this week.”

The hole at Albany Scottie Scheffler simply could not work out across the week

It is probably an ominous sign for the PGA Tour that it really felt as though Scheffler could have hardly played worse. And yet, he still finished in a tie for fourth and still had a genuine chance to join the leaders on 22 under par after an eagle on the 15th.

Unfortunately, he failed to make another birdie. He may not have been particularly surprised that was the case on 16, with that particular hole causing Scheffler issues throughout the week.

Chamblee suggested that the four-time major champion never quite managed to figure the hole out during the tournament.

“He lost by two this week. Try and sum up why he lost by two this week, clearly, the 16th hole is a nemesis for him. Let’s go back to the first round – he did make par here, but I don’t think we’ve seen too many tee shots where he loses control of the driver – literally and metaphorically. He got lucky, made par,” he said.

“The luck ran out in round number two. I know this is a long hole, I know this is a tough hole, and I know it’s easy to say this sitting here, but I don’t know why he didn’t hit three wood off this tee. That went through the fairway, ended up in a palmetto bush. He made double bogey.

“This is Saturday. This tee shot ended up in an awkward spot; technically, maybe the fairway, but a severe downslope, and from there, he pulled his second shot into a bunker and it plugged and made bogey.

“Today, again, talk about getting lucky – look where this one could have ended up. It gets into the palmetto bush, deep, looks like it’s going to be unplayable. And then, it’s like wait, that’s the number one player in the world, spit it back out. He made par, very lucky to do that.”

Some of Scheffler’s rivals may have taken encouragement from some of the shots he hit throughout the tournament. They were certainly uncharacteristic.

But what is frightening is that there was no dramatic collapse or tumble down the leaderboard despite Scheffler being nowhere near his best.