Scottie Scheffler entered the winner’s circle nine times in 2024, including his latest and final victory of the year at the Hero World Challenge. Still, it is not a stretch to say that number could have been even higher. Putting together a historic season and winning at a clip just shy of 43% across 21 tournaments played, the world’s No. 1 golfer saw his fortunes take a turn once he finally addressed his shortcomings on the greens in early March.
Prior to introducing a mallet-style TaylorMade Spider putter, Scheffler struggles with the wand in hand were well-documented. The year before, Scheffler produced jaw-dropping tee-to-green numbers but only won three times — often due to his inability to hole putts with any kind of consistency.
It appeared this style of play would mire his 2024 as Scheffler’s success up until reaching the green continued to draw comparisons to Tiger Woods. Meanwhile, his putting was parallel to that of Ernie Els from the 2016 Masters (I kid). In his first five tournaments of the season, Scheffler showed visible frustration on the greens before ultimately reaching a boiling point at the Genesis Invitational.
Leading into the tournament at Riviera, Scheffler was a measly 77.78% from 3 feet to 5 feet, well below the PGA Tour average (typically a shade under 90%). During an appearance on CBS, Rory McIlroy suggested Scheffler employ a mallet putter; as we all now know, the rest was history.
“Last year, I was trying to be perfect on the greens,” Scheffler said in the PGA Tour’s “Scottie 24” documentary. “It didn’t really go that well, so when I switched to the Spider, I was able to free things up and see some good, consistent results from it.”
While Scheffler’s putting looked much better the rest of the season, there is still room for improvement. Per Data Golf, he remained among the worst in the world from close range, which matters when you have the type of stellar iron play Scheffler possesses — an ability to set up one scoring opportunity after another.
Scottie Scheffler’s 2024 putting (pre-Hero World Challenge)
|
30+ feet |
11th |
94.6 |
|
5 to 30 feet |
72nd |
64.5 |
|
2 to 5 feet |
157th |
22.7 |
That led into the Hero World Challenge where Scheffler surprised many by utilizing a saw grip for putts inside roughly 25 feet. Intended to take the right hand out of the putting stroke, Scheffler’s new grip led to a sizzling six-stroke victory where he bested 17 of the 19 other competitors by 10 strokes or more.
“Going into this week, it was something I wanted to test out,” Scheffler said. “You can always practice and do everything at home, but competition’s just a slightly different animal. It was good to come out here and compete and play under pressure, play with the lead, play close to the lead most of the week and I felt really comfortable.
“I would definitely assume that it’s going to be there in Maui. I’ll go home and assess the week, talk to Phil [Kenyon]. Overall, I felt like the results — and the way I felt over the ball — I was really comfortable in competition, and I was pretty pleased.”
Scheffler’s subtle switch may not seem like that big of a deal, especially during a sleepy tournament in the Bahamas in the middle of December; however, it might be indicative that something larger is at play.
The 28-year-old ranked third in strokes gained putting, first from inside 10 feet, first in approach putting (i.e. lag putting) and went around Albany GC without a single three putt or miss inside 4 feet.
It’s a limited sample size with recency bias, no doubt, but if Scheffler has indeed improved his short-range putting, he will head into 2025 as complete a player as ever. He won’t spot the first five tournaments of the year to his peers due to putting woes, and it’s likely he won’t have another run-in with the law during a major championship (at least one would think).
What Scheffler accomplished in 2024 was scary good, but the even scarier part is what he might be able to achieve if he can improving his putting in 2025.
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