The stats and story behind Scottie Scheffler's season defining putter change

Scottie Scheffler's putting appeared to be a huge problem at the beginning of the year. 

However, now six wins deep in the season, he's never looked better with the flat stick in hand. 

So, what changed? Well, a simple switch of putter was all it took to turn Scheffler from one of the shakiest putters on Tour to one of the best. 

It was no secret that Scheffler struggled on the greens during the 2023 season, and some notable missed short putts began to leave us wondering whether the glaring weakness in his game would ever be remedied. 

Thankfully, the team at TaylorMade were on hand to provide a selection of solutions to Scheffler's issues.

For as long as he'd been on Tour, Scheffler used a blade-style putter, but when he rocked up to the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he had switched to the TaylorMade Spider Tour X, one of the brand's most popular mallets. 

The change offered Scheffler a higher MOI profile that was designed to offer more stability and forgiveness than his previous putters. 

The impact was instant, and Scheffler went on to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational by five strokes.

Since the switch, Scheffler has been close to unbeatable and has amassed five more wins, including his second green jacket at The Masters. 

Prior to the change, the team at TaylorMade constructed four prototype putters for Scheffler with various custom features, including a full sight line on top of the True Path Alignment and a Pure Roll insert.

Having trialled all four at home in Dallas, Scheffler eventually opted for a Spider Tour X L-Neck.

Scheffler's Spider Tour X L-NECK SPEC

"The whole idea in the beginning was that he was so adamant about using a blade putter for so long that we need to think outside the box if we were going to give him a putter with the benefits of a Spider putter. That’s where the prototype came in."

From a Strokes Gained Putting perspective, Scheffler only has one round since putting the Spider Tour X in the bag with negative Strokes Gained Putting. His best statistical putting round came in the final round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational where he had 3.892 Strokes Gained Putting and was 17-for-17 inside 10-feet.

The stats

• 121 made birdie putts
• Six made putts over 30-feet
• 11 made putts over 20-feet
• 28 made birdie/eagle putts over 15-feet
• Six made par saves over 10-feet
• 27 final round birdie putts
• Seven instances of 3+ made birdie putts in a row
• 1,198 feet made of birdie/eagle putts

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