ORLANDO, Fla. — Golf is a humbling, often perplexing game, one that befuddles and bemuses even the best who play it. The swing comes and goes, and with that comes an understanding that even the best of the best battle the demons the lead to sleepless nights and endless range sessions.
Then there is Scottie Scheffler.
The world’s No. 1-ranked player via the Official World Golf Ranking has held that position since last May, and yet until Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he had not won an official golf tournament in 52 weeks.
While there is no shame in that, it was a shame for Scheffler that he played some of the most beautiful golf of his career over the past 12 months without any hardware to show for it.
And, to be simple, it was all down to putting.
Brennan Asplen/Getty Images
“We all knew that he had this in him,” said Rory McIlroy after Scheffler’s bogey-free 66 under that included no missed putts inside of 15 feet at the Bay Hill Club. “His ballstriking, honestly, is on another level compared to everyone else right now. We knew if he started to hole putts, then this sort of stuff would happen.”
Scheffler was tied for the lead at the start of the day, birdied the 1st hole and almost never looked back. On a tough weekend at Bay Hill with a particularly windy Saturday, Scheffler found his form on the greens and won by five shots over Wyndham Clark and six over Shane Lowry, who played with him in the final group.
MORE: Final payouts from the Arnold Palmer Invitational
A new putter this week helped, but so did a continuation of his tee-to-green game. Scheffler has been hitting the ball on a string for more than a year. In theory, all pros are good ballstrikers, but there are some who are on another level, and that has been where Scheffler has resided during all this time.
His stats bear it out based on his ranking atop most of the strokes-gained categories on the PGA Tour. He simply gives himself numerous opportunities and it’s a matter of taking advantage of them on the greens.
“I think it has a lot to do with keeping the mind as quiet as possible,” said Scheffler, who won $4 million from the $20 million purse. “Part of the problem is just trying too hard. It's frustrating to not have the best of myself, just because I know that I can putt really well. It's not like I've been a bad putter my whole career. I've just gone through a stretch where it's been tough.
“I think this week I did a really good job of not letting the misses get to me. (Caddie) Teddy (Scott) did a really good job of keeping me in a good head space and we stayed positive out there and I hit a lot of good putts.”
Scheffler has been about as consistent as a golfer can be in this era.
For the first 16 official events he played in 2023, Scheffler was a relentless ballstriking machine. During that time, he finished no worse than a tie for 12th. He had 11 top-five finishes and two wins.
The last was at the Players Championship, where he will defend his title this week. Even though Scheffler had a historic year in terms of stroke average (his 68.63 adjusted scoring average was the seventh best in PGA Tour history and the best of anyone not named Tiger Woods) and was voted PGA Tour Player of the Year (despite Jon Rahm winning four times including the Masters to Scheffler’s two victories), the lack of victories was glaring.
Even after a win at the unofficial Hero World Challenge in December and work with a new putting coach, Phil Kenyon, Scheffler still had his issues this year, with a bunch of putters and contraptions often visible at various PGA Tour locations.
“Putting is such a weird thing,” Scheffler said last year during some of his oft-mentioned struggles. “Sometimes when you feel good you feel like you’re never going to miss, and then sometimes when you feel terrible you feel like you’re never going to make.”
Scheffler always tried to keep a positive outlook. The putting questions were numerous, and he always tried to spin it as though things were not as bad as they appeared.
They’re good putts but just not going in. The reads were good just not enough speed. It’s a matter of getting a few more to drop, etc.
Anecdotally, there were an abundance of missed opportunities, especially inside 10 feet. You’re not going to make them all, but Scheffler was so proficient at hitting greens and giving himself chances that the misses were more pronounced.
Then there’s the raw numbers. Last year, Scheffler was No. 1 on the PGA Tour in strokes-gained total, No. 1 in strokes-gained off-the-tee, No. 1 in strokes-gained approach ... and 162nd in strokes-gained putting. He was giving up more than two strokes to the field per tournament week.
This year wasn’t much better, and he ranked 144th coming into the Arnold Palmer in strokes-gained putting while near the top of the other categories.
But Sunday he led the field in putting and was fifth overall for the week, gaining more than four strokes on the field. Combine that with all the other good stuff and he’s hard to beat.
“There's probably only a couple of players in the world that can live with him playing like that,” Lowry said. “Not sure I'm one of them. I was obviously just disappointed I didn't put any pressure on him early. I got off to a bad start, he got off to a good start. I was a few shots behind all at the end of the day. I'm sure Wyndham feels the same.
“But, yeah, he showed today why he's world No. 1.”
Scheffler now has seven PGA Tour victories in his career, all in the past two-plus years. It’s easy to say he could have a handful more if he had putted better. Perhaps this week was a turning point in that regard.
“If you're trying to play perfect golf, it doesn't really work,” he said. “There's no such thing. I think sometimes the perception from people on the outside, golf looks really easy when you watch it on TV. I mean, it really does. It does not look that hard. But then when you go out here and compete and play on the PGA Tour, it's pretty dang difficult.
“So I try to take that approach to all aspects of my game and sometimes when things aren't going right, you try to be perfect and at times in the last year or so, it's definitely been frustrating knowing that I can hole putts and win tournaments and not being able to do it at the clip that I would like to.
“It's just a matter of continuing to stick to what we're doing and just wait for results to come and not force them. Putting's such a difficult thing because you can't force it. Like, I can hit a really good 9-iron from the middle of the fairway and every now and then I'll get gusted, and it won't turn out well, but worst case it's not going to be very far from the hole. But putting, I could hit a really good putt from 15 feet and if it lips out, it's the same thing as me just hitting a terrible putt a foot short and then tapping it in.”
