Rory McIlroy Makes Wise Decision To Stop Giving Scottie Scheffler Putting Advice
Scottie Scheffler cruised to a five-shot victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week, giving him his first win in 363 days. That close to a year-long drought without a win is mind-numbing given that Scheffler has been the best ball striker on planet Earth for more than two years now, but it was his poor putting numbers keeping him out of the winner's circle. Those putting woes went out the window at Bay Hill last week, and Rory McIlroy may have played a pivotal role on Scheffler finally finding form on the greens.
Scheffler finished the 2023 PGA Tour season ranked 162nd in strokes gained: putting and his woes with the flatstick carried over into the new year. He put a mallet-style putter back in the bag for the Arnold Palmer Invitational and finished fifth in the field in strokes gained: putting and McIlroy may deserve some of the blame for the putter change.
During February's Genesis Invitational, McIlroy was asked about Scheffler's struggles on the greens and suggested he may want to make an equipment change.
"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. For me, going to a mallet was a big change, so I’d love to see Scottie try a mallet," McIlroy said on the CBS broadcast.
Credit: Danielle Parhizkaran-USA TODAY Network
The Arnold Palmer was Scheffler's next start after The Genesis, he showed up with his mallet putter, and the rest is history.
After taking a 14-shot beating from Scheffler at the Arnold Palmer, McIlroy explained ahead of this week's Players Championship that he won't be handing out any more putting advice to the best player in the world.
"I'm not going to give him any more advice, that's for sure," McIlroy said with a smile on his face on Wednesday.
"It was me basically trying to talk about myself more than talk about Scottie. It was like, okay, when I putted with a blade, I struggled. When I went to the Spider, I found a little more success and I was a little more consistent. I didn't know he was going to put it straight in the bag and win by five.
"If people ask for advice, I'll certainly give them -- I don't feel like I need to be guarded or -- I think over the years, coming up through the ranks, people have been good enough to me if I've asked them for advice to give me advice, so I think I should be able to repay that to other people if they come to me."
Putting is the only knock anyone can possibly make in regard to Scheffler's game. If he can manage to be an average putter week after week and simply not lose strokes on the greens, then he is going to be close to impossible for anyone else in the field to catch.
McIlroy saying he's going to lay off giving Scheffler any putting or equipment advice has to be music to every other PGA Tour player's ears.