Scottie Scheffler’s 2024 was a remarkable one, having won nine times across the year, and the world No. 1 may have Rory McIlroy to thank for an important piece of advice
Scottie Scheffler’s remarkable 2024 season was given a helping hand by his PGA Tour rival Rory McIlroy, after making a key change to his putting.
Scheffler has once again dominated men’s professional golf this campaign, winning nine times across the year, including the Players Championship, the Masters, the Tour Championship and Olympic gold in Paris. The beginning of his dominance started after swapping out his putter, with his efforts on the green the only previous question mark to his game.
The change saw him swap out a traditional blade putter which he had used for the majority of his career, instead moving to a mallet style, adding the Taylormade Spider to his bag.
The equipment switch-up came after the 28-year-old was told to move to a mallet by McIlroy. “I’ve certainly been through my fair share of putting woes over the years, and I finally feel like I’ve broken through and become a pretty consistent putter,” the four-time major winner said in February.
“For me, going to a mallet was a big change. I really persisted with the blade putter for a long time, but I just feel like your stroke has to be so perfect to start the ball on line, where the mallet just gives you a little bit more margin for error. So, I’d love to see Scottie try a mallet.
“But selfishly for me, Scottie does everything else so well that he’s given the rest of us a chance.” Just weeks later Scheffler opted to take up McIlroy’s putter advice, throwing in the mallet for the Players Championship before proceeding to win the PGA Tour’s flagship event for the second year in row.
Scheffler won the Masters for the second time in April ( Image: (Image: Getty))
From there Scheffler’s season took off, with the highlight coming at the Masters a month after his Players victory. McIlroy may well have regretted his tip for the world No. 1, but next week he will be hoping Scheffler is as hot as ever when they team up to compete in ‘The Showdown’.
McIlroy and Scheffler will team up to take on two of their biggest LIV Golf rivals in Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau. The match will give fans a rare chance to see some of the best players from both sides of golf’s fallout away from the four major championships.
“I don’t know if it was to spur things with everything that went on, it was really about us taking this into our own hands a little bit and do something outside of either tour to not only give back to the fans, but to show them or at least let them know we’re trying,” McIlroy said of the upcoming matchplay clash in Las Vegas.
““We’re trying to bring these players together, and the most opportunities we can get to do that, the better. Does it remind people we’re not playing together all the time? Yes. But at least we’re making the effort to try to bring the best together more often. If we can start by doing something like this, that’s only a good thing.”
