This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.
There was something decidedly different about Scottie Scheffler this past week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. If you said it was his beard, you wouldn't be wrong. But if you said it was his putter or, more specifically, his putting, well, that would've been a better answer. Just slightly.
Scheffler awoke from a year-long slumber on the greens with one of the best putting performances of his career. Combined with his historically great tee-to-green game, it was not a fair fight out there at Bay Hill, with Scheffler cruising to a five-stroke win over Wyndham Clark.
The 27-year-old world No. 1 won for the first time in almost a year -- since last year's PLAYERS Championship, and he'll defend that title this week -- as his putting numbers cratered into some of the worst on the PGA Tour.
But armed with a new mallet-head putter, Scheffler had his best putting week in more than two years. He ranked fifth in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting, at 4.347 strokes. On Sunday alone, he gained 3.892 strokes -- his best single-day putting performance in two and a half years.
Scheffler, Clark and others helped the PGA Tour get what it had been craving: a star-studded leaderboard on Sunday. The thing was, Scheffler was so dominant that there was zero drama. But Scheffler in the winner's circle is one of the best things that could happen to the Tour, especially with the Masters now a month away.
Scheffler was asked if the turnaround was the new putter, or more "between the ears" stuff.
"Part of the problem is just trying too hard," he said. "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.
"Yeah, I think this week I did a really good job of not letting the misses get to me. Teddy [Scott, his caddie] 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, a lot of good putts this week."
Now, we've seen bad putters turn good, if not great -- like Lucas Glover last summer. The question is, is it sustainable. For Glover, it wasn't. Of course, the thing with Scheffler is, he does not have to be great on the greens, just less horrible.
At Bay Hill, he led the field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, Around-the-Green and Tee-to-Green, and he ranked second in greens in regulation. That's the Scheffler who had been finishing in the top-5 week after week after week without getting any help from his putter.
"It would be borderline unfair if he starts putting really good," said Clark. "I never want to wish ill on anybody, but if he starts putting positive each week it's going to be really hard to beat."
MONDAY BACKSPIN
Wyndham Clark
Clark is now up to a career-high No. 5 in the world rankings, and half the players on Tour should be contacting his sports psychologist, who was featured on the just-released Season 2 of the Netflix series "Full Swing." She really helped jump-start his career a year ago. Since then, Clark has a major win, two Signature wins, including last month at Pebble Beach, and now a Signature runner-up.
Shane Lowry
Lowry had slipped out of the top-50 in the world but noq sits at No. 37 after consecutive top-5s – T4 at the Cognizant, solo third at Bay Hill. He ranked top-10 in the field in SG: Off-the-Tee, Approach and Around-the-Green, and a decent T27 in Putting. And now he heads to a course, TPC Sawgrass, where he has a top-10 and a top-15 in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Will Zalatoris
It's hard to believe Zalatoris had a lead on Saturday that was every bit as big as Scheffler's margin of victory. He didn't play poorly overall, ranking third in the field in SG: Off-the-Tee and 10th in Approach, plus a great-for-him 22nd in Putting. It added up to a tie for fourth and the one berth in the Open Championship that was available this week via the Open Qualifying Series. Zalatoris clearly is all the way back from his season-ending back injury of a year ago. The thing is, many back injuries have historically never fully gone away.
Russell Henley
Henley's world ranking has reached a career best of 22nd with his second T4 of the season (also Sony). Weirdly, it wasn't Henley's laser-like accuracy off the tee and from the fairway that landed him in the top-5. He ranked second in the field in SG: Putting. While not on par with Scheffler, if Henley could add better putting to the rest of his quality game, he'd win another tournament sooner than later.
Sahith Theegala
It doesn't quite seem like it's been a good year so far for Theegala, but it has. After a runner-up at the Sentry and a solo fifth at Phoenix, he added a tie for sixth at Bay Hill.
Brendon Todd
For the short-hitting Todd to tie for sixth in an elite field on a long course, it's all but a certainly his short game and putting had to be off-the-charts good. They were. Todd led the field in SG: Putting and ranked third in Around-the-Green. It was his first top-10 since the Fortinet.
Andrew Putnam
Another short hitter, Putnam took a different approach from Todd in tying for eighth. He ranked fourth in the field in SG: Approach, which is amazing for him considering how short he is off the tee, and second in Around-the-Green. For that to happen with terrible Off-the-Tee numbers is remarkable.
Byeong Hun An
An's career renaissance continued with a tie for eighth. It was his third top-10 and fifth top-25 already this season.
Hideki Matsuyama
There was the dreaded back-injury scare from Matsuyama early in the week. Which was a shame coming off his big win at Riviera. But it didn't appear to be much, as he tied for 12th. Matsuyama now heads to TPC Sawgrass, where he tied for fifth last year.
Rory McIlroy
McIlroy's decision to alter his schedule to play more leading up to the Masters does not seem to be working right now, though there is still time for him to be proven right. If you had heard he ranked second in SG: Off-the-Tee and 19th in Putting, you'd have figured he could've contended for the title. But uncharacteristically horrible approach play (ranked 55th) doomed him to a tie for 21st.
Xander Schauffele
T25 in a 69-man field, or any field, is not a good week for the world's sixth-ranked player.
Jordan Spieth
Spieth had top-5s the past two years at Bay Hill but wound up T30 this year. His last four starts are: T39-T6-DQ-T30. You can describe that in one word: Spiethian.
Webb Simpson
Much was made of Simpson getting a second consecutive sponsor invite into a Signature Event, because he's ranked outside the top-200 in the world. It's generally seen as a "thank you" for his work on the Tour's policy board. Simpson tied for 30th and finished ahead of a lot of good players. But the end doesn't necessarily justify the means.
Viktor Hovland
We're now two months into the season and the world No. 4 doesn't have a finish better than T19. He was T36 at Bay Hill. At THE PLAYERS, he's finished top-10 the past two years. Something's got to give this week.
MISSED CUTS
There were only 11 players who missed the cut, but there were a bunch of big names. Collin Morikawa, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott, Kurt Kitayama. Morikawa has two top-20s and two missed cuts in his past four starts. The two-time major winner can't be happy with his game and where it is right now. … Fitzpatrick had not been at his best this year, but he was great almost every year at Bay Hill. With this MC, it might be time to start worrying. … Fleetwood might not have made the cut anyway, but a quintuple-bogey on the par-5 sixth on Friday sealed his fate. … Scott got another sponsor invite into a Signature Event but didn't justify the selection … Kitayama was the defending champion.
PUERTO RICO OPEN
Forty-year-old Brice Garnett birdied the fourth playoff hole to fend off Erik Barnes and win the opposite-field event. It won't get him into Augusta, but he gets a critical exemption through 2026, plus entry into THE PLAYERS, the PGA Championship, the Charles Schwab and the 2025 Sentry. At age 40, all that is more important than one Masters. It was Garnett's second career win. Barnes is playing on Tour this year via a Korn Ferry Medical Extension.
