Scheffler is doing some weird and wild stuff on the golf course these days.
Scottie Scheffler is doing some weird and wild stuff on the golf course these days.
During the third round of the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina on Saturday, he hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation and shot 8-under 63. Over the last three seasons, he has the most bogey-free rounds, most rounds with 7-plus birdies-or-better and most rounds hitting 15-plus greens in regulation.
That’s just a sampling of his mind-boggling brilliance, which includes victory at the Masters last week, two more wins and a T-2 in his last four starts. Scheffler may be headed for another W on Sunday. But to hear Justin Thomas tell it, the weirdest part of Scheffler’s heater may be that he’s doing it using high-numbered golf balls.
“Does anyone else think it’s weird that Scottie uses high numbers? I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an elite player use high golf balls,” Thomas, who joined the CBS broadcast after Saturday’s third round, asked.
CBS’s Amanda Balionis cut in to say: “Dottie, you have someone else in your lane for this.”
“It’s true,” Pepper, a 17-time winner on the LPGA Tour, said. “He used a seven (Friday) and a six (Saturday).”
“It’s wild,” Thomas said. “I’ve been going about this wrong my whole life.”
CBS’s Trevor Immelman asked Thomas what number he uses. “Anything but fours,” said Thomas.
Why no fours? “I don’t know,” Thomas said. “You know golfers, we’re just ridiculously superstitious. I think I had a couple bad holes or rounds and that was all she wrote.”
According to a Golf Digest story, Scheffler started using balls marked with Nos. 5-8 “because it’s easier to identify,” he said. “I’ve just hit the wrong ball a few too many times.” Scheffler recently recounted to Golfweek’s Cameron Jourdan about one of those times he played Beau Hossler’s ball in college.
Count Ben Crenshaw among the pros who wouldn’t play a ball numbered higher than four – that’s the highest score he wanted to make on any hole. Ernie Els was known to change golf balls after a birdie – he believed that a ball only had one birdie in it. But Scheffler seems immune to the number game.
“Not weird at all,” CBS’s Dottie Pepper wrote on X on Sunday. “Just doesn’t seem to have the superstitions many athletes/golfers have. Scottie’s golf balls – regardless of the numbers – are finding the (the) hole faster than anyone else’s!”
Indeed, they are.
Not weird at all; just doesn’t seem to have the superstitions many athletes/golfers have. Scottie’s golf balls—regardless of the number— are finding hole faster than anyone else’s! https://t.co/4y5nRa8k0N
There’s another important Scottie at Harbour Town this week.
Another week, another signature event on the PGA Tour.
The first round of the 2024 RBC Heritage is in the books, and numerous players took advantage of softer conditions at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, meaning birdies were aplenty on Thursday.
J.T. Poston holds the solo lead, and he has Scottie (no, not that one) to thank. Meanwhile, the Masters champion got off to a slow-ish start, but he finished strong after grinding through the middle of his round.
And in between, there are plenty of players crowding the top of the leaderboard with no major separation after 18 holes of play.
Here’s what you need to know from the opening round of the 2024 RBC Heritage:
There’s another important Scottie at Harbour Town this week. Katherine “Scottie” Poston, J.T. Poston’s daughter, who was born March 20, is with Poston for the first time since she was born. Along with wife Kelly, the Postons are off to a great start on Hilton Head Island.
Poston opened in 8-under 63 on Thursday to take the solo lead at the RBC Heritage. The 63 is the fifth time Poston has opened in 63 during a Tour event since the 2016-17 season, tied with Jordan Spieth for the most during that span. He had nine birdies and a lone blemish on the card to complete a stellar opening round.
“Maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe she’s a good luck charm,” Poston said of his daughter. “It’s been great. It’s definitely an adjustment. I think my wife and I were figuring it out. My mom is here. She’s helping us out, too. So we’ve got plenty of help. We’re just kind of figuring it out. But it’s good to have them here and sort of takes away the pressure of — I’m not worrying about golf when I’m at home. I’m trying to change diapers and take care of her.”
In the last five years at the RBC Heritage, Poston has finished in the top 10 three times while missing the cut in 2021 and 2023.
His 8-under start has opened up a two-shot lead on Seamus Power and Collin Morikawa.
He said the tournament is one he has circled on the calendar at the beginning of every year because he enjoys Harbour Town so much. Even with the extra responsibilities off the course, Poston is focused on playing strong golf on it. And he had no issues with that Thursday.
“My wife has been great,” Poston said, “She knows this is just how it is. We have to spend some time on the golf course. I’ve got to work on my game. I’ve got to stay sharp. She’s been awesome giving me the time to do that, and I’m not taking it for granted. I’m trying to be productive and get back home when I can help.”
As Austin Eckroat explains it, he was struggling with “everything” last week at Augusta National, resulting in him missing the cut.
“I came off a really good stretch, and all of a sudden I couldn’t hit the golf ball,” he said. “It’s never far away from good golf, but it’s also — you’re never that far away from struggling a little bit.”
Eckroat didn’t touch a golf club on the weekend, instead taking a spot outside the ropes as a patron on Saturday at Augusta National to get away a bit and have a different experience.
And it paid off. Eckroat’s refocused approach resulted in an opening 5-under 66 on Thursday. The winner of the Cognizant Classic earlier this season had six birdies and a lone bogey, and he said his weekend refresh contributed to the quick start.
“It was honestly a really enjoyable weekend to go and watch the Masters,” Eckroat said. “I had never done it and tried to take some notes on some guys playing well. Sunday I watched at home and then ended up driving over here and took it easy.
“I went and watched Amen Corner. That was a really cool area. I wanted to see Tiger at least hit one shot, so I watched Tiger hit his tee ball on 10 and then I just hung out on 13. We had a good spot where we could see the second shots, and it was a really cool spot.”
Theegala wants to play every week on the PGA Tour. It irritates him when he’s off because he still watches golf on TV and wonders why he isn’t in the field. But he knows that’s not possible.
He went into this year with a goal of building a smarter schedule to handle the signature events and majors better. And thus far, he feels as if it is paying off.
Theegala is in the group of players at 5 under and three back of Poston. He fired a bogey-free 66 on Thursday coming off a T-45 at the Masters last week.
“I haven’t played quite as much, and my body is thanking me,” Theegala said. “I feel like I have more energy for the bigger events, which is awesome. It’s really worked out well at the start of the year.
“I joke with my buddies all the time. I would always say I’m playing every event I get into, half-jokingly, but I was like, I’m not missing a Tour event. We’ve grinded our whole lives to get here and now I’m just going to be skipping a bunch of events. It feels weird to take it off, but I see the benefit in doing so. That’s probably been the number one answer when I’ve asked guys that have played out here for a long time, what’s their secret to the longevity. It’s really not pushing it.”
Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth were paired together for the first round of the RBC Heritage, and through five holes, Spieth was 4 under and Scheffler was 1 over. By day’s end, Scheffler nicked his fellow Longhorn and Dallas resident by a shot.
Scheffler’s incredible consistency again showed Thursday, as he opened in 2-under 69, just four days removed from his second Masters victory. Scheffler didn’t get to Harbour Town until later in the week and played only nine holes on the back side during the pro-am portion of his warm-up. Yet even after an early shank on a bunker shot that resulted in a double, Scheffler settled in and birdied Nos. 16-17 to card 2 under.
“It would have felt better if I got off to a better start, but I tried to give myself a little bit of grace there, but I got pretty frustrated towards the middle of the round because I was playing good, felt like I was hitting good putts, and my speed was maybe a touch off,” Scheffler said. “I think I was maybe too settled down to start the day. I wasn’t quite into the competition. I think maybe it was a bit of fatigue, whatever it was. But I felt like I was still kind of getting adjusted to the golf course.”
Scheffler made birdie on the par-5 second before the double on the third. He carded the second of his four birdies on the par-3 seventh and then had eight straight pars before his consecutive birdies.
In his last four starts, Scheffler has three wins and a T-2. And in that T-2, Scheffler was a couple putts away from forcing a playoff or even winning outright. He mentioned he didn’t get as much work in on the greens at Harbour Town this week, but who can blame him? He has plenty of things going on in his life, including his first child being born in the coming weeks, as well.
“I think sometimes that frustration from not playing my best I think kind of helps me focus sometimes,” Scheffler said. “You can use that as good energy and you can use that as bad energy, so I tried to use it as best I could for the good stuff today.”
Up until last week, Collin Morikawa was searching for his game. Yet for the second straight week, he looks like the player who won two major championships.
Morikawa is two shots back after an opening 65 that included seven birdies and one bogey. And a week after a T-3 at the Masters, Morikawa is in great position after the opening 18 holes at Harbour Town.
“Especially the way I’ve been playing, you never know how it’s going to be. But when you find this little rhythm and you find this kind of — just pathway, just to play golf, it’s very simple. Sometimes when you’re playing bad, you look back and you wonder why it can’t be that simple.”
With the recent winners list featuring a bunch of names you wouldn’t know, there’s still Scheffler.
Every so often, someone comes along who’s capable of taming the beastliest, most excruciating game that man has inflicted on itself with little more than a smirk and a shrug.
What Scottie Scheffler is doing to golf isn’t easy. It dang sure isn’t normal.
But see, he acts like it’s both.
The bad doesn’t fluster him. The good doesn’t seem to enthuse him. No cursing. No celebrating. Just the next shot. It’s remarkable, Scheffler’s untouched demeanor. You could call it a gift. Or robotic. Or mentally tough.
You could also, of course, call it boring.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. In sports, the inevitable usually is boring.
On Sunday, that’s what Scheffler was: Inevitable. He didn’t just win the Masters for the second time in three years. He won after four days of, “Yup, there’s Scheffler.” The guy was widely expected to win it at the start – and then at the end, with most viewers rooting against him so the final round would be more competitive, he played even better while others faltered, turning it into a back-nine rout.
In a field with 89 of the world’s best golfers, including the PGA Tour’s briefly reunited LIV defectors, no one finished within four shots of Scheffler’s 11-under-par. Only hotshot rookie Ludvig Aberg (7 under) was within seven strokes. Then Scheffler smiled and put on another green jacket and went home to his wife and continued preparing to be a father, which was clearly his priority all along during this tournament.
He’s just so normal, right? To be this good at golf?
On Thursday, during the first round of the RBC Heritage, Scheffler mucked up the third hole, taking a double bogey. The rest of the day, however, he made very few mistakes en route to a 69 that put him, you guessed it, well within striking distance of the leaders. Slow and steady.
Only the all-time greats win this way, but with Scheffler, his budding greatness gets understated. Because his personality doesn’t lend itself to fame – or appear to have any interest in it.
In a sport known for greed and selfishness, two things embodied by the LIV players’ cash grabs, and in a sport where golfers are more increasingly becoming fine-tuned athletes, muscles bulging from under shirts, there’s beauty in the fact that Scheffler doesn’t come off like any of that.
He’s 27, but he looks – and carries himself – closer to 37, especially with the beard. He seems more like your friendly neighbor next door or your buddy from college who can make you laugh without saying much. The one who always answers the phone when you call, because “Man, I ain’t that busy.”
We should treasure this in a superstar, honestly, but something tells me we won’t.
In our society, we prefer our sports stars a certain way – brash, bold, quotable, eager for attention. We remember Barry Sanders admiringly for flipping the ball to referees after touchdowns, but it’s Deion Sanders that we still can’t stop talking about. Pete Sampras more often beat Andre Agassi on the tennis court, but Agassi was always the brightest star. Image is everything, if you recall.
It doesn’t take much to be entertaining in golf. My late grandfather loved Chi Chi Rodriguez because of how he used his putter as a sword. Heck, Patrick Cantlay played without a hat for last year’s Ryder Cup, and it led to an international incident.
With Scheffler, the most unique thing about watching him play is that he travels when he shoots. On each long-range shot, he “scheffles” his feet in this strange, untidy little dance move. It attracts your eye but typically doesn’t keep that golf ball from going where Scheffler intended, an indication that he has figured out something about the golf swing that hadn’t been discovered.
Scheffler has long been the best ball-striker in golf, hindered only by his putting. If he ever got that part of his game in order, they’ve said, no one else would have a chance.
Lately, he has gotten his putting in order.
With 2024 thus far being a free-for-all on the PGA Tour, with the recent winners list featuring a bunch of names you wouldn’t know, there’s still Scheffler. He keeps asserting his dominance. He has won three times in the past six weeks. He won at Bay Hill. He took The Players, even though he hurt his neck in the process.
Scottie Scheffler walks up to the No. 17 green during the first round of the 2024 Masters Tournament. (Photo: Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Network)
And now, he’s got The Masters in his pocket with the other three majors and Paris Olympics still out there to be won in 2024. Scheffler could be zeroing in on a historic run. He’s playing that much better than anyone else.
In Augusta this past week, in difficult conditions and gusty winds, Brooks Koepka (9 over) didn’t play a round under par. Adam Hadwin (12 over), Tony Finau (13 over), Tiger Woods (16 over) and Vijay Singh (14 over) all had rounds of 80 or worse. And these five golfers all made the cut.
Who didn’t? Dustin Johnson, Jordan Speith, Justin Thomas, Viktor Hovland, Brian Harman, Sam Burns, Sergio Garcia, Justin Rose and reigning U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark – a popular pre-tournament pick outside of Scheffler.
Many who’d been playing well on the PGA Tour lately got chewed up and spit out by Augusta National.
But not Scheffler.
The hardest, once again, looked easy for him. Nothing wrong with acting like you’ve been there before, especially when you have.
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes.
Scheffler’s green jacket tour – the sequel – is officially on and it all started with a pit stop at Inwood Tavern.
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – A photo of Scottie Scheffler at a popular Dallas dive bar in the wee hours of the morning after winning the 88th edition of the Masters surfaced on social media on Monday. What was Scheffler, who rushed home to be with his pregnant wife Meredith, doing celebrating at a local watering hole?
“So on the plane ride home, I was with my manager Blake and my coach Randy and then I had four of my good buddies with me, and I don’t remember who suggested it, but it seemed like a good idea, and when Meredith picked us up at the airport it still seemed like a good idea, and Meredith was down, so we went for probably 20 minutes and went home,” Scheffler said. “Took a few photos, had a drink and then went home and went to bed.”
Scottie got home and went straight to the iconic dive bar Inwood Tavern to celebrate last night.
Scheffler also explained how he wound up at Inwood Tavern of all places.
“I don’t know if I’d actually been to that place before,” he said. “There was another tavern around the corner that I’d been to a few times and it’s a nice place, but shockingly it wasn’t open Sunday at 1:30 in the morning. This place was open.”
Credit to Meredith for not only picking him up at the airport after 1 a.m. — most wives would’ve said get yourself an Uber! — but willing to go out and celebrate in style until closing time at 2 a.m.
“I think Meredith finished her Heineken Zero and it was like, now we can go,” he said.
Yes, he wore the green jacket to the bar
Scheffler wore the green jacket at the bar and said he’s looking forward to wearing it to some familiar places that he sported the famed jacket in 2022, when he won the Masters for the first time.
“I think right now the way I feel is I want to wear it around the house more,” he said. “But as far as stuff to do with it, I think I’ll probably do something similar. I think I liked going to some of the sporting events in Dallas. The Rangers won the World Series last year, the Mavs are playing some good basketball, Stars are heading into the playoffs, as well, so I’d like to go to some more games. I’ll be home for a few weeks now. Obviously things will be a little bit different with Meredith expecting pretty soon. We’ll see, but hopefully go to a few more sporting events.”
Scheffler’s green jacket tour – the sequel – is officially on and it all started with a pit stop at Inwood Tavern.
Homa called Scheffler, “one of the best players I think we’ll ever see.”
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – In the lead up to the 88th Masters last week, ESPN commentators were asked how they thought Scottie Scheffler would do if he putted adequately. When host Scott Van Pelt weighed in on the chances of the world No. 1, he didn’t hesitate to say that Scheffler should be the pick.
“There’s a reason why his odds are in Tiger territory. They’re as low as anyone’s we’ve seen since Tiger. That’s because the answer to your question, if he putts adequately, he wins,” Van Pelt said. “Sometimes you don’t have to try so hard. You don’t have to squint so hard to see the answer. It’s just a big bold type in front of your face, Scottie Scheffler. Scottie Scheffler is going to play well at Augusta, the end. When he does on Sunday and he’s right there with a chance, you’ll go, of course. If he putts well, then he’ll win. It’s really that simple, isn’t it?”
Two-time U.S. Open winner Andy North seconded the notion as only he can. “It’s like that hot doughnut sign about 1 in the morning,” he added.
“He’s just been annoying everyone for the last three months, hasn’t he?” Matt Fitzpatrick, the 2022 U.S. Open champion, said.
Max Homa, who finished tied for third at the Masters, called Scheffler, “one of the best players I think we’ll ever see.”
The predominant belief among the players is that the gap between Scheffler and everyone may not be the size of the Grand Canyon but it’s wider than Rae’s Creek.
Wyndham Clark, the reigning U.S. Open champion, has run into the Scheffler buzzsaw on multiple occasions this season, finishing second to him at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship. (Clark missed the cut at his first Masters.)
“The thing that I really am impressed by him is just the consistency that he’s always in contention, and either he wins or he finishes kind of top 5. I do think there’s a little gap right now, and I’m hoping as I progress as a player mentally and physically and everything that maybe by the end of the year or sometime next year maybe I’ve closed that gap a little bit,” he said.
Clark is motivated to get better for future battles and is confident his best is good enough to beat Scheffler even when’s he’s playing well. But the pursuit of better is what drives him.
Wyndham Clark walks off the No. 2 green during the first round of the 2024 Masters Tournament. (Photo: Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Network)
“It just brings the overall quality of play up significantly when someone is playing that good all the time. I think everyone looks at themselves in the mirror and goes, what do I need to get better at because you feel like you’re playing good golf and you’re not beating him,” Clark said. “I think it would be great if we could have multiple guys that are kind of battling it out all the time. I don’t know if that’s me or could be someone else, but I would love for it to be me, and I’m working as hard as I can to be that person.”
Homa played alongside Scheffler last year at the U.S. Open in Los Angeles and came away starstruck by Scheffler’s brilliance.
“I just kept thinking to myself, man, must be nice, that’s just incredible, and then he’s done it for a year. Those are like great weeks that you like harken back to. He does this every week,” Homa said. “It’s definitely unique what he’s doing.”
Homa was asked if he found trying to catch Scheffler to be more daunting or challenging?
Max Homa and Scottie Scheffler walk up the seventh hole during the first round of the 2024 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. (Photo: Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports)
“More challenging, I would say. I think it’s inspiring. It makes you look at your game even more closely to figure out what you would do to get on his level,” Homa said. “I think because of the Tiger era when he was just running through golf tournament after golf tournament and just annihilating everybody, it was probably more daunting because we had never seen anything like that.”
Scheffler, for one, expressed concern that playing at Harbour Town Golf Links this week could be more challenging for him than the Masters as he battles fatigue, but he never considered withdrawing and staying home in Dallas with wife Meredith, who is awaiting the birth of their first child later this month.
“I think playing in contention at majors and especially winning takes a lot out of you. There’s a lot of stuff that goes on after the Masters on Sunday, and you get home very late, and emotionally I think I’m a bit drained,” Scheffler said.
But if the remaining 68 players in the field think this means that he’s grown complacent, think again. Scheffler made it clear he’s going to rest up and recover and aiming to bring home his fourth title in his last five starts.
“I’m not showing up here just to walk around and play a little golf,” he said. “I left my pregnant wife at home to come here and play in a golf tournament. I am here to play and hopefully play well. I’m not here just for fun.”
The birth of the Scheffler’s first child may be the only thing that can slow him down. Homa, for one, was asked if he’d be in favor of a mandatory three-month paternity leave?
“No, I want to beat his ass pretty bad at some point,” he said. “I’d be lying if I wasn’t thinking a little bit about last week if Meredith did go into labor. The beauty of this is you want to beat the best when they’re at their best.”
A picture is worth a thousand words (and 280 characters).
One of the biggest storylines entering this PGA Tour season was Scottie Scheffler’s putting woes.
The world No. 1 had struggled with the flatstick and after last year’s Tour Championship at East Lake talked with his agent, Blake Smith, about seeing a putting coach on the plane ride home. Scheffler has seen PGA Master Professional and putting coach Phil Kenyon work with different types of players over the years and he appreciated his approach.
“As I watched Phil, I could tell that he was open-minded, and that’s the type of people I like to work with,” Scheffler said Sunday after he won his second Masters in three years. “And we kind of hit the ground running in the fall. I can’t speak highly enough of the decision that (swing coach Randy Smith) also made to be open-minded, not take an ego to it, sit there, watch us work, watch Phil do his thing.”
“Phil is also a guy that doesn’t have a big ego. He just wants what’s best for his players,” Scheffler added. “I’m really, really fortunate to have those two guys as part of my team.”
He might not have a big ego but we now know Kenyon keeps receipts. Back in March, a social media troll said “Phil Kenyon is destroying Scottie” in response to a photo of the two working together at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Scheffler went on to win that tournament and then the Players Championship before a T-2 at the Texas Children’s Houston Open and his recent Masters triumph. A month later, Kenyon got the last laugh.
Scottie Scheffler rocked the green jacket at a Dallas dive bar after getting home on Sunday night.
Scottie Scheffler said he was going to try to enjoy his latest victory, a four-shot triumph at the 88th edition of the Masters in Augusta, Georgia, on Sunday.
“I will go home, soak in this victory tonight,” he said during his winner’s press conference after shooting 4-under 68 at Augusta National Golf Club.
Scheffler, who won the green jacket for a second time, did just that. When he got back to Dallas, he paid a visit to the Inwood Tavern to celebrate. Scheffler rocked the green jacket over the outfit he wore in the final round —though he did swap out his hat.
Scottie got home and went straight to the iconic dive bar Inwood Tavern to celebrate last night.
“In my head, all I can think about right now is getting home,” Scheffler said. “I’m not thinking about the tournament. I’m not thinking about the green jacket. I’m trying to answer your questions and I’m trying to get home.
“I wish I could soak this in a little bit more. Maybe I will tonight when I get home.”
Scheffler’s festivities don’t appear to rival the next-level British Open celebration in Ireland that commenced shortly after Shane Lowry won the British Open at Royal Portrush in 2019, but props to Scheffler for soaking in the triumph at one of his hometown’s old-school bars.
Scottie Scheffler won over $21 million in prize money last season and was one of the PGA Tour’s worst putters. His driving and iron play were that good. He played in 23 events and made the cut in all of them, earning top-10 finishes in 17 to go along with two wins and two runner-up finishes. He did all that while finishing No. 162 in Strokes Gained: Putting.
Scheffler tinkered with different putters in the second half of 2023, benching his Scotty Cameron blade-style putter for a prototype TaylorMade Spider with a milled face at the end of the PGA Tour season. That didn’t work, so Scheffler played a few events with a blade made by the Olson Putter Company at the end of 2023 and in early 2024, but that didn’t work out either.
Then, in the days leading up to the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, Scheffler switched back into a TaylorMade Spider and won, leading the field that week in Strokes Gained: Putting. The following week, he won again at the 2024 Players Championship, finishing first in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (naturally) and 37th in Strokes Gained: Putting.
Rory McIlroy’s prophecy appeared to be coming true because, speaking with Amanda Balionis at the Genesis Invitational in February as Scheffler struggled on the greens, McIlroy had said, “I’d love to see Scottie try a mallet, but selfishly for me, Scottie does everything else so well that he’s given the rest of us a chance.”
A few days before the Masters, Golfweek talked with Andrew Oldknow, TaylorMade’s director of product creation for putters, to learn what makes Scottie Scheffler’s new Spider Tour putter unique, how it is similar to Spider Tour X putters sold at retail and more.
[afflinkbutton text=”Shop TaylorMade Spider Tour X putter” link=”https://worldwidegolfshops.pxf.io/5gJa91″]
TaylorMade created two prototype Spider mallet putters with milled faces for Scheffler to try at the 2023 Tour Championship. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Golfweek: Let’s go through a progression. Towards the end of last season, Scottie Scheffler started using a TaylorMade Spider putter with a milled face. Was the goal to create a mallet that would feel like the milled blade putters that he had before but that would provide the forgiveness or stability?
Andrew Oldknow: The goal, honestly, was to give him better alignment. While centering the ball with the alignment system, we were actually trying to get that thing to perform just like a blade.
We put a massive amount of tungsten in the front of that putter. We used all aluminum in the back. We gave it a profile of the Spider X shape, but under the backside, it really was all cut out. We were hollowing the whole thing out to get as much weight forward as possible so that the putter actually closed like a blade.
At the time, he loved the performance of his blade, he just felt like he didn’t have enough alignment out of it. True Path worked really well for him in terms of centering the ball. One of his biggest issues is he doesn’t always hit the ball center face.
Scheffler’s Spider Tour X putter is large enough to contain the True Path alignment system. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
GK: Got it. A blade simply doesn’t have the size to be able to accommodate a True Path-style alignment system.
AO: Correct.
GW: After playing a few events with an Olson blade, Scottie and his team asked TaylorMade for many different Spider putters with different hosel configurations, neck styles, and even different inserts. Obviously, he was very open then to the alignment system you talked about, and he wound up settling on a Spider Tour X with an L-neck hosel. That configuration is not available at retail. How much does that hosel configuration play into the way his putter swings for him?
AO: Yeah, great question. So, over the last few years, even Rory McIlroy has gone into a slant-neck version of the Spider Tour. They’re very similar, but the toe hang is going to be slightly different.
Scheffler’s Spider Tour X has an L-neck hosel designed to create some toe hang. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
We know that toe hang is slightly more toe down with the L-neck, so that helps [Scottie] rotate and feel more blade-like performance. Again, we’re trying to get him the good feel that he wants. He’s been in the blade for the majority of his life, and winning majors and so forth in a blade product.
So, we want to make sure that when he’s releasing the putter, that it has the right feel. A slightly more toe-down putter is going to have more of a familiar feel, and so that’s been the most important thing for him.
And yes, he asked for everything under the sun and our team has done everything we can to provide him with that.
GW: I noticed on the retail putters there is an X7 in the sole in the toe area, but on Scottie’s but an X1.
AO: Yep.
GW: Does that mean anything?
AO: Yeah, hosel, that’s the type of hassle on there. We have code names for our hosels.
Scottie Scheffler lines up his putt on No. 11 during the final round of the Masters Tournament. Mandatory Credit: Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Network
GW: So, the motivation for Scottie to change was really rooted in wanting to be able to align the putter more easily, and then you designed a Spider that would swing like his blade. But now, instead of hitting off a milled metal face, he’s using a grooved Pure Roll face. Is it the same one that is in retail putters?
AO: He was in the camp of wanting more metal face inserts versus the Pure Roll Surlyn insert. We provided him with milled prototypes and metal versions with different thicknesses to get different feels. And then, low and behold, Joe Ryon, who runs our putter lab, was like, “Let’s just throw one in with the actual, stock, Surlyn insert even though they’re not asking for it.” We wanted to give it to him.
A blend of Surlyn and aluminum powder create the feel Scheffler likes while the Pure Roll grooves encourage the ball to start rolling quicker. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The Pure Roll insert has a little bit of aluminum powder in it, so it’s 80 percent Surlyn. We’ve player-tested pure Surlyn inserts (essentially ionomer resin) in the past, but they test too soft.
AO: Yes. The addition of the Aluminum flake slightly firms the compound to create a perfect balance of feel, sound and roll performance. And, as you can see, the score lines and grooves are angled down slightly. They will grab the ball better and get it rolling. In everything we’ve ever tested on our Quintic Ball Roll system here in The Kingdom, you will see that if you put somebody in this 80/20 Pure Roll insert, they will instantly get better numbers.
GK: What is the loft on Scottie’s putter?
AO: Our traditional Spider Tour putters have 3.5 degrees of loft, but Scottie’s has 3.1 degrees. You need some loft in there because the ball sits in a depression created by its weight. You have to get it out of the depression or else you end up just jamming it into the ground, but the grooves grab the back of the ball and stop it from back spinning.
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“He should be going to class, and instead, he’s playing in the Masters.”
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Scottie Scheffler is in a much different place than he was three years ago.
The 2022 Masters Tournament champion has crept into veteran territory and is noticing the changes in his approach.
“I think in terms of preparation, I think I valued much more rest going into these types of weeks,” the 27-year-old said Tuesday. “I think when I first came out in my career, I didn’t really value rest as much as I should have. I was a really big practicer, and I would say I probably practiced too much at tournaments. So, trying to work on getting quality rest and being ready to compete.”
The top-ranked golfer in the world, Scheffler enters this week’s Masters with wins at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill and the Players Championship in back-to-back weeks. He tied for second at the Texas Children’s Houston Open two weeks ago and has seven top-10 finishes in his last eight starts.
He played a practice round Tuesday with 20-year-old rookie Nick Dunlap, who made sure to pick Scheffler’s brain as much as possible.
“He’s in a difficult spot where he should be in college right now. He should be going to class, and instead, he’s playing in the Masters. He asks us a lot of questions, and I try to give him the best answers that I can,” Scheffler said. “Yeah, I feel like when I first came out, there were a lot of older guys that gave me really good advice. And I’m just trying to kind of pay it forward to the next group of guys.
“I think I’m seven years older than Nick, which is pretty wild. I still feel like the young guy out here, and I’m kind of trending now towards the older end of the spectrum now, which is really weird.”
Legendary caddie unlocked Scottie Scheffler’s potential at Augusta
Before Scheffler’s Masters win in 2022, he had a chance meeting with legendary Augusta National Golf Club caddie Carl Jackson. The rest, as they say, is history.
“Well, I’m not going to expand too much on Carl’s secrets in front of people, but … No, it was maybe my second Masters, it was either my second or third. I sat kind of in the back of the caddie house with Carl. And, yeah, he gave me a yardage book that had some of the — where he — I think he called it grain, where some of the slopes are. And it’s just a yardage book that has some arrows in it.”
Scheffler still studies the yardage book to this day.
“I’m not going to tell you where the arrows are pointing,” he said, laughing. “But it’s something that I’ll kind of review at night and I always look at it in the lead-up to the tournament just because there is kind of some weird stuff that goes on around the golf course. And, I mean, he’s such a peaceful guy. So, it was really nice just kind of listening to him talk about the golf course.”
Here’s the kicker: both Scottie and Sam are playing in the 2024 Masters this week at Augusta. So the big question to ask is this: what happens if either of their wives goes into labor in the middle of one of their rounds?
There’s an answer for that: Golf Channel reports that they would definitely withdraw if it came to that. Do with that information what you will, and take note that they’re on the record saying that.
Scottie Scheffler & Sam Burns both are expecting their babies to be born in the next 1-3 weeks.
