Scottie Scheffler is the No. 1 player in the world, and it's for good reason. He's long off the tee, hits it close with his approach shots and puts himself in position to win almost every time he plays.
However, Scheffler has one kryptonite: putting.
While Scheffler was enjoying an historic 2023 season in terms of strokes gained tee-to-green, he was living through a frustrating season in terms of putting. Scheffler was tops on the PGA Tour in strokes gained total and tee-to-green, but he was 162nd in strokes gained putting. Still, the Texan wasn't entirely sure what to do.
Now it feels like Scottie Scheffler has a handle on why his putting lagged so far behind the rest of his game.
Just ahead of the Ryder Cup, Scheffler started working with Phil Kenyon, who is renowned for his short-game teaching. The pair met in Dallas for two whole days ahead of the Ryder Cup, and they've continued working together in the fall -- both in person and remotely.
"Putting's one of those things," he said Wednesday at the 2023 Hero World Challenge. "I think what Phil has helped me the most with is just getting a clear mind. Right now I feel like my mechanics are in a good place to where I can use my athletic ability instead of using it more as a crutch, kind of overusing my athletic ability."
Scheffler was getting too handsy in his putting stroke, he said, like he had done in college with his full swing.
"I found myself in certain mechanical positions in my swing that I was having to use my hands so much that they became more of a hindrance, if that makes sense," he explained. "My swing in college would get really far underneath, and I would feel the club back there, feel it open and I would use my hands and I fought a hook all of college from swinging underneath and using my hand to flip it over.
"My putting was something where I got out of position in my backstroke and I was having to use my hands too much. That's where I got a little bit of the heel strike that I fought a little bit this year and some pulled putts."
Scheffler, who is sporting a new putter this week from a small company called Logan Olson Putters, said he feels his mechanics are now in a place where he doesn't feel the need to compensate for poor technique as he gets the blade closer to impact.
"Now I feel like I'm in a place with my putting where I can use my feel, my instincts to kind of turn off and just go there and try and hit putts and be OK with the result whether it goes in or doesn't," he said.
Scheffler won twice in 2023, taking the WM Phoenix Open for a second year in a row and winning The Players to reach a half-dozen PGA Tour wins in the space of 13 months. Still, Scheffler wants more.
"I was very proud of my consistency, I think that was the thing I was definitely the most proud of. I was near the top of most of the events that
I played in. And I'm sure if you looked at like a winning percentage against the other guys out here in terms of like if you look at an individual win loss, it was very good and I'm very proud of that consistency," he said.
"But like I said, I definitely want to win more."
