Okay, so I spent some time really watching Scottie Scheffler lately, specifically focusing on his putting stroke. It’s something I’ve been mulling over.
You see him hit the ball, right? Unbelievable. Off the tee, with his irons, it’s just pure. Like clockwork. He gets himself into position time after time.
My Process Watching Him Putt
So I started just isolating that part of his game when I watched the broadcasts. Ignored the drives for a bit, zoned in when he was on the green. What did I actually see?
- First, the setup. Looks pretty standard, nothing crazy unconventional that jumps out immediately.
- Then the stroke itself. Sometimes it looks smooth, confident. Other times, especially on shorter ones under pressure, it seems a bit… hesitant? Maybe less free-flowing than his full swing.
- I also paid attention to the results. He makes plenty, don’t get me wrong. But you also see misses that feel like they shouldn’t happen, given how good the rest of his game is.
Then I tried to remember what folks were saying, you know, the commentators and stat people. They always talk about “Strokes Gained”. It kept sticking in my head. So I went and looked up some basic putting stats, just the simple stuff you find easily. Didn’t need the deep dive analytics, just the general picture.
And yeah, it matched what I was seeing with my own eyes. His ball striking numbers? Top of the world. Like, way up there, leading in lots of the tee-to-green categories. But the putting numbers? They’re usually just… average. Not terrible, not amazing. Just solidly in the middle compared to the rest of the tour guys.
It’s like his long game is this huge engine pulling the train, and the putter is just kinda keeping pace, not really adding extra speed. He switched putters a while back too, remember? Went to that mallet thing, then seemed to go back or try other stuff. Shows he’s aware, he’s grinding on it, trying to find that extra edge on the greens.
So, my takeaway after watching and thinking it through? It’s fascinating. You have arguably the best ball striker on the planet, maybe one of the best ever, and his putting is just… okay. It really highlights how different putting is. It’s its own beast. And it shows even the top guys are always tinkering, always trying to improve that one part that isn’t quite perfect. Just my observation from watching him work.
