PGA Tour: Scottie Scheffler not concerned by recent slow starts

Scottie Scheffler says it wouldn't be wise to change his approach to tournaments after starting slowly in his three previous PGA Tour events. 

The 29-year-old, who won two major championship titles last season, started this season with a bang by picking up a win on his very first start of the calendar year at The American Express.

But a strange pattern has developed for Scheffler where the American has begun tournaments slowly, carding opening rounds of 73, 72 and 71 at TPC Scottsdale, Pebble Beach and Riviera. 

Scheffler fought back like the champion he is, registering top-five finishes at the WM Phoenix Open, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and only narrowly missed out on extending his streak of 18 top-10 finishes at the Genesis Invitational. 

He told reporters before this week's Arnold Palmer Invitational that he is not worried at all about the pattern that is emerging.

Scheffler joked in his pre-tournament news conference on Wednesday he spent his week off "reinventing the wheel" after his top-10 streak ended. 

"I mean, last year on Tour I led the Tour in first round, second round, third round, and fourth round scoring," he said. 

"So I'm not too concerned over a very small sample size. When you look at the body of work for me this year, I played four tournaments, so that's 16 rounds. 

"And I've always been a guy that's been really good at staying in the present, doing what I need to do in order to go out and play well. 

"And so at 16 rounds I've had 13 that have been really solid and three that haven't been as good. So I'm still batting at a pretty nice percentage. 

"And so if I wanted to dig deep into it I could completely change how I approach tournaments, but I don't think that would be very wise."

Scheffler has won the Arnold Palmer Invitational twice in his career. 

Victory would hand him his 21st PGA Tour title. 

He anticipates that the winning score at Bay Hill this week will be low. 

"I mean, when you look at this golf course, you have to be in the fairway," he said. 

"If you hit it into some bunkers you'll be okay, but if you hit it into start hitting it in the rough you're toast. First and foremost, get the ball in the fairway. 

"And then you got to be fairly conservative going into a lot of these pins, just because how firm it is, just because how thick the rough is around the greens. 

"The winning score here is always pretty, I don't know if you say high or low, but it's not far from par in a typical year. 

"So around here, unless you're playing the par-fives, par's a pretty good score on most holes."

Scheffler is playing the first two rounds of the Arnold Palmer Invitational alongside defending champion Russell Henley.