Surely, Scottie Scheffler would put the birth of his son, Bennett, above this any day. But the defining moment of Scheffler’s 2024 is the few weeks between the Genesis Invitational and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. At Riviera, Scheffler played like he would not let anyone come near him. Yet, the world no.1 finished 10th. 

At Bay Hill, Scheffler looked like a hungry beast. And he played like one, netting his first PGA Tour title of this season. Before that, Scheffler had four top-tens, but the enduring images were his putter stamping and ball throwing in frustration! So, what changed? 

Well, his putter. The former Texas Longhorn was let down by his unruly flat stick. But what the world didn’t know was that the TaylorMade team was working behind the scenes with new putter designs. In fact, Scheffler requested four different putters to test them out. The TaylorMade team had to think ‘outside of the box’ for their arguably the most important client.

“We’re all set here in Dallas. See you Tuesday at Bay Hill!” That’s what he wrote in response to TaylorMade Senior Tour Manager, Adrian Rietveld’s query on the tests. Next thing you know, the world no.1 was the sixth best in putting at Bay Hill. The highlight was his monster 45-feet-2-inches putt for birdie, the longest he would drain this year. 

The Spider Tour X mallet putter was a subject of curiosity, intrigue, and mystery. Scheffler has traditionally been a blade putter. The last time he used a mallet putter was during the 2023 FedEx Cup playoffs.

Every time Scheffler gained strokes with the putter – sometimes as minimal as +0.38 – he was close to a podium finish. Indeed, that one key decision resulted in seven titles in the PGA Tour including the Tour Championship and an Olympics gold medal. 

Scheffler bled shots with his putter at the Sentry, American Express, and Genesis Invitational. So, the change, albeit expected, was a curious one. Who gave him the idea? “So, I’d love to see Scottie try a mallet, but selfishly for me, you know, Scottie does everything else so well that, you know, he’s giving the rest of us a chance,” said Rory McIlroy after the Genesis Invitational. A week later, Spider Tour X was in Scheffler’s bag. But correlation is not causation.

Scottie Scheffler’s putter change was the result of a long-drawn process

The world no.1 later revealed his team was mulling over a putter change for some time. McIlroy’s advice just came at a ‘funny’ time. “I think, as a lot of good players out here know, something that works for Rory may not work for me, and something that works for me may not work for Rory. I did hear that he said that, and it was just kind of funny timing,” Scheffler said later. 

So, the Spider Tour X L-Neck was the result of much deliberation and tweaking around. Something that was going on for months before Scottie Scheffler agreed to switch. But McIlroy was right about the future trajectory. Since gaining strokes in putting, the Dallas resident hasn’t let anyone come close to him.