Scottie Scheffler confident he'll improve heading into Masters - ESPN

Defending Masters champion Scottie Scheffler said his results so far this season have been decent but not good, but he's confident his game is headed in the right direction heading into next month's tournament at Augusta National Golf Club, the first major of the season.

Scheffler, who won nine times around the world last year, including a gold medal at the Olympics, hasn't yet finished first in five starts this season.

That probably shouldn't be a surprise after the world No. 1 golfer missed the first month of the season after injuring his right hand while making homemade ravioli on Christmas Day. A broken wine glass punctured the palm of his hand, requiring surgery to remove glass fragments.

While Scheffler said he no longer has pain in his hand, it has taken a while to regain full range of motion.

«I think it would be silly to say that it didn't set me back a little bit, because I had to take a good amount of time off,» Scheffler said Wednesday. «And I mean, I'm a right-handed golfer, so any sort of injury that you have to that hand, especially a surgical one, I think is going to have some sort of effect. I think it'd be silly to say that it didn't set me back a little bit, but at the end of the day, it's one of those things where, you know, accidents happen.

»I'm going to live my life. I can't live in a bubble."

It's not like Scheffler's results haven't been good. Since returning to action at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in early February, he has finished in the top 25 in each of his starts. He tied for third at 9-under at the Genesis Invitational, three strokes behind winner Ludvig Åberg, and tied for 11th at 4=under at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, another signature event with a loaded field.

Scheffler tied for