Scottie Scheffler's Game Doesn't Include a Hot Putter Right Now, Yet He's Still the Man to Beat
DUBLIN, Ohio — As a high school senior and the reigning U.S. Junior Amateur champ nine years ago, Scottie Scheffler made an electrifying hole in one during the PGA Tour’s Byron Nelson Championship.
His sister, Callie, caddied for him and talked him into hitting a 5-iron off the tee instead of a 4-iron. The shot was a huge thrill, for more than one reason. After the round, Callie said what Scheffler’s admittedly nervous parents may have been thinking from their vantage point in the gallery: “At least he didn’t have to putt!”
That was then, when a young Scheffler could be wildly inconsistent on the greens. Now, the older-but-still-young Scheffler is ranked No. 1 in the world (and No. 1 SI World Golf Rankings). No one reaches that pinnacle with a hole in his game, no matter what you may have thought about former No. 1 Luke Donald. (Just joking, Luke.) But if one area of Scheffler’s is weaker than the others, by default, it’s his putting, primarily because the rest of his game is so (add expletive here for emphasis) good.
CBS Sports dropped some startling numbers on viewers during the Memorial Tournament’s final round. Scheffler ranked last in the field in strokes-gained putting for the week at the time of his finish, losing more than nine shots to the field. He was first in strokes-gained tee to green, picking up more than 18 shots. CBS host Jim Nantz added his own inflection of incredulity—as only he can—when he pointed out that the longest putt Scheffler holed all week was a mere nine-and-a-half feet even though he posted 68-67 on the weekend and finished third, one shot out of a playoff that Viktor Hovland won over Denny McCarthy.
Thanks, CBS. As a result, Scheffler was promptly asked/reminded about his putting when he finished his round early, about two hours ahead of the leaders. Scheffler pointed out that he made a 24-footer for birdie at the 8th hole Sunday but it was from the fringe. “So that probably doesn’t count towards whatever stats you’re looking at,” he said with a grin. No, it did not count in the stats. Score a point for Scheffler.
Scheffler doesn’t have a putting problem, just a temporary ball-going-in-the-hole problem. He feels he is on the upswing, though. “It’s progress,” he said. Somewhat frustrated, he has experimented. Thursday, he used a putter similar to his usual gamer but with a different lie angle. Friday, he went back to his original. After that round, he said, he even tried rolling some putts with his lob wedge, a practice device he sometimes uses to improve the release of his putting stroke.
Does Scheffler have a stroke issue? No. His current dry spell, which is more like a barely damp spell, might have something to do with the physical and mental fatigue of playing four straight weeks of tournament golf and getting in the mix few times. Four in a row, he said, “is a hard max for me.” Meaning, he’s not going to do that again if he can help it in the new Elevated Event Era.
Another factor is the challenging greens at Muirfield Village and Colonial Country Club, sites of the last two tour stops. Those are not great places for anyone to measure their putting whose name isn’t Denny McCarthy, the tour’s new King of the Putters—sorry, Jordan Spieth.
And don’t throw that 72nd-hole four-putt when Scheffler won the Masters Tournament into the conversation. He knew he had strokes he could afford to squander and yes, he was nervous, but he was simply being careful and making sure of the biggest W of his life.
Is this putting glass half-broken or half Gorilla-Glued-together? It’s Scheffler’s call and he feels pretty good about things even though putts haven’t been falling for him the way he expects since mid-April. “Like I said at the PGA, I can start feeling the ball coming off the blade again, which is good,” he said. “It didn’t feel as good at the Masters and, was it Hilton Head? Today, I just go through my round and I’m like, 'how did some of these putts not go in?'”
Scheffler was paired Sunday with Jon Rahm. Interesting pairing. Scheffler four-putts the last hole to win his Masters, Rahm four-putts his first hole to win his Masters. It’s a funny universe. Anyway, Rahm has been fielding similar putting questions of late and the two green-jacketed champs talked about it Friday.
“I played with him at the Byron Nelson and his putting stats were bad,” Scheffler said, “but he’s like, 'dude, I’m just hitting so many greens that you don’t get to choose the kind of putts you want. If you miss more greens, you can find the uphill putts and maybe get to see your read when your ball rolls by the cup. But if you're playing from the fairway and hitting a ton of greens, it's not easy make a ton of putts.'”
Statistics can be twisted to serve almost any purpose. Most famously when cartoon character Charlie Brown, erstwhile baseball pitcher, listened to his nemesis, Lucy, recite his horrible pitching numbers. “Tell your statistics to shut up!” was Charlie Brown’s reply.
Let these numbers keep talking, for whatever they’re worth. Scheffler ranked 114th in strokes-gained putting before Memorial and 148th in one-putt greens. Here’s another bad one: From 10 feet, he ranked 191st on tour. But is it really all that bad? He was 19th in putts per green hit in regulation, the stat formerly used before the invention of strokes-gained, and third in three-putt avoidance, a telling and possible more important number.
The shortest distance between two points is a straight line and that describes Scheffler. He keeps things simple, he’s honest and he walks and talks a straight line. How’s his overall game? “It’s definitely pretty good right now,” he said with a small bit of immodesty. “Yeah,” he added, “it’s pretty good.” That kicker is the kind of thing a golfer says only if he knows he’s got his A-plus game.
“A little bit of my struggles with the putting have probably helped me sort of elevate my ball striking just because if I'm trying to compete out here, I have to hit it really good and I've been able to do that. Maybe people are asking me about my putting so much more because I'm hitting it so good. I mean, if I was putting the best this week, I would have won by a crazy amount of shots.
“Granted, my putting stats should still be significantly better than what they are but I have confidence in the stuff I'm working on. I don't really have an explanation for it, but I’m sure I'll get back towards my average and putts will start falling.”
The next tournament he tees it up pin would be a good time for that. It’ll be the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course. One thing Scheffler has already proven by age 26—he’ll be 27 in about two weeks—is that he’s got a big game for big courses. The tougher the setup, the better for Scheffler. Colonial and Memorial are the most recent examples. His last nine finishes in majors were, in chronological order, 8th, 7th, 8th, first, missed cut, 2nd, 21st, 10th and 2nd. That would be Tiger-like with a couple more “1's” sprinkled in there. Nine of his last 11 majors ended with a top-10 finish.
“It feels really cool to win at a tournament like this where the golf course is arguably harder than most major championship courses we play,” Hovland said. “It felt like a major.”
Hovland’s comment helps explain why Scheffler was in the mix. He arguably has a penchant for the U.S. Open. He was an amateur playing for the University of Texas in 2016 when he competed in the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont. Scheffler was among only nine players who finished the first round on Thursday, due to storm delays and stoppages and of those, meaningful or not, he was the clubhouse leader with 69. Andrew Landry was the official first-round leader the next day when he had a mere tap-in for 68. Scheffler didn’t play again until Saturday and missed the cut.
Scheffler won low amateur honors at Erin Hills the following year, placing 27th. At Torrey Pines in 2021, he was three shots off the lead after 54 holes and tied with eventual winner Jon Rahm. Scheffler closed with 72. Rahm holed back-to-back putts on the last two holes for 67.
And then there was last year at Brookline. It looked as if might be his week after he holed out from 102 yards for an eagle at the par-5 8th hole during the third round to take the lead. Matthew Fitzpatrick had other ideas, securing the title with a shot for the ages from a fairway bunker on the 72nd hole.
By late Sunday afternoon at Muirfield Village, all Scheffler wanted to do was fly back to Dallas and rest for the year’s third major championship in a few weeks. Asked if he could imagine the Open playing harder than this week’s Memorial and if he’d prefer it that way, Scheffler misinterpreted the question went off in a straight line.
“I would imagine the USGA would definitely like the U.S. Open to be harder than this week,” he said.
Scheffler’s history says what he didn’t: He would, too.