Breaking Down Scottie Scheffler’s Putting Revolution at Bay Hill

The Scottie Scheffler Show at Bay Hill

We commented almost a week ago on another putter change for Scottie Scheffler in preparation for his week at Bay Hill.

He had rotated the flat stick three times already in recent weeks, experimenting with the Olson blade prototype, the Scotty Cameron Timeless Tour model and a TaylorMade Spider Tour mallet style putter. These changes, the hiring of renowned putting coach Phil Kenyon and this graphic on the PGA Tour website can explain what has gone on in his last 12 months.

Embed from Getty Images

The rest of Scottie’s game tee-to-green is so far ahead of everyone else in the field that his putting is lacklustre and he’s still featuring in tournaments. The fear for the rest of his competitors that as soon as he even started putting to the field average – he would wipe the floor with them.

Enter, the weekend at Bay Hill

Until this weekend, Scheffler was 1^st in Strokes Gained: Total, 1^st Tee-to-Green, 7^th Off-the-Tee, 2^nd in Approach and 8^th Around the Green. In Strokes Gained: Putting he was 144^th out of 186.

Scheffler flipped the script at Bay Hill, making 13 one-putts in 16 holes over Saturday and Sunday and nailing crucial fifteen footers on his quest for victory. He was 1^st in Putting Average, T1 in Bogey Avoidance and T1 in 3-putt avoidance. His lag putts went in or near, and he cleaned up inside makeable range. His long game was world-class as always. Therefore, he won. By miles.

Embed from Getty Images

Scottie made only 7 bogeys all week on a course that saw a 12 (shoutout Jake Knapp) and multiple big numbers due to the treacherous tee shots presented at Arnie’s place. Scottie navigated them with ease, during his final round he would take driver when the target area was small, leaving the commentary booth bewildered at his aggressive approach, then incredulous at the subsequent fairway-splitter.

This mindset was Tiger-esque, extending his three-shot lead to four or five rather than sitting on it and playing safe. A bogey-free Sunday 66 won’t ever go far wrong, and Scottie ended up winning by a convincing five strokes.

“There’s probably only a couple of players in the world that can live with (Scottie) playing like that” commented Shane Lowry, who came 3^rd with another strong week, six shots back of Scottie after clawing back to a Sunday 72 despite being +3 through 7 holes.

“Not sure I’m one of them“.

Hard to beat, indeed.

The Fix 

It was a pretty simple solution in the eyes of many, Easy to say, harder to do. Scottie had to putt above average for the week in only the slightest margin and – ceteris paribus – he would win. As per the omniscient Justin Ray:

“This is the 4th time since the beginning of 2022 that Scottie Scheffler has gained 4 or more strokes putting in a PGA Tour event.

His finishes:

“Win

Win

Win

Win”

Funnily enough, Rory McIlroy can lay claim to the assistance he provided for Scottie in what felt like the constant headline of ‘what if’ with regards to Scottie’s putting.

Embed from Getty Images

McIlroy joined the CBS telecast at the Genesis, watching Scheffler miss another birdie putt and just said “I’d love to see Scottie try a mallet.”

After losing nearly five strokes on the greens at Riviera, Scheffler had to try something, and went back to the TaylorMade Spider Tour. To be fair, he wasn’t hitting bad putts for a long time, they just wouldn’t go in. It has been Scottie’s ‘Rory Sunday at St Andrews’ show, but for the last eight months.

When asked about his approach on the greens for the first two rounds at Bay Hill, Scottie said:

“Sticking to my process and doing a really good job of not letting things bother me. That’s kind of been my main goal this week, not trying to be perfect, just go out there and hit solid putts and see what happens.”

The Numbers

His mid-range putts were dropping this weekend, but the number I was shocked by is that Scottie was sat on around a 75% conversion rate from four feet.

• Of 39 attempts tracked so far this year, he had holed only 31, placing him 171^st from this distance. The mallet-style putter makes it easier to start putts on line, and this is crucial from such a short distance, even if you over or under read these putts.
• From 4-8 feet, Scheffler is converting around two-thirds (67.4%), 56 from 83 attempts – 104^th in the rankings. If the mallet has realigned his mechanics, the process will start to reap the rewards. Bumping this number to 75% puts him in the top 30.

He is a firm favourite now for the Players and the Masters, and rightly so. If his putting woes are over, everyone else is playing for second. If that SG: Putting number is anywhere near 0 (average) for the foreseeable, we could see Scottie go on a Tiger-like run in 2024.

Cover Image via X