Embracing the imperfect, Scheffler the model of perfection

ORLANDO, Fla. – The world No. 1 cruised around brutal Bay Hill without a bogey for a five-shot victory in a performance that some might call perfect. But for Scottie Scheffler, his seventh PGA Tour title will be remembered for embracing the imperfect.

Sneaking up on a year since his last official PGA Tour victory at the 2023 Players Championship, Scheffler knew the narrative – sublime ball-striker whose inconsistencies on the greens had cast a shadow over an otherwise stellar 12 months.

With strokes gained: tee to green totals that compared only to Tiger Woods in his prime, Scheffler finished outside the top 10 just twice after last year’s Players and he rolled to Tour player-of-the-year honors for the second consecutive season. But it was his struggles on the greens — magnified at the Ryder Cup — and his move to putting coach Phil Kenyon that dominated the conversation, and similar struggles this year only increased the questions.

Even when he took an overnight share of the lead into the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational there were lingering doubts that he could negotiate Bay Hill’s greens, which were on the crusty, yellowish side of green.

But it wasn’t a foolish quest to be perfect that was the key to his second victory at Arnie’s Place.

“That’s kind of been my main goal this week, not trying to be perfect, just go out there and hit solid putts and see what happens,” said Scheffler, who closed with a 66 to beat Wyndham Clark at the year’s fourth signature event.

Statistically, it was Scheffler’s best putting week since the 2022 WM Phoenix Open, where he defeated Patrick Cantlay in a playoff and picked up 6.49 shots on the field in strokes gained: putting.

His 4.347 strokes gained: putting performance at Bay Hill was nearly five shots better than his season average and ranked fifth in the field. His Sunday performance was even more impressive with a perfect 15-for-15 mark for putts inside 15 feet, highlighted by a 34-footer on No. 15 to virtually lock up the title with most of the other contenders struggling in the windswept conditions.

“I just think that’s how it works across all aspects of the game. If you’re trying to play perfect golf, it doesn’t really work. There’s no such thing,” Scheffler said. “I think sometimes the perception from people on the outside, golf looks really easy when you watch it on TV. I mean, it really does. It does not look that hard. But then when you go out here and compete and play on the PGA Tour, it’s pretty dang difficult.”

But if embracing the imperfections of the ancient game proved to be the key to getting Scheffler back in the winner’s circle, there was plenty of trial and error along the way, including his decision to switch to a mallet-headed putter this week.

That switch, along with a signature ball-striking performance that included the field’s best strokes gained: off the tee, strokes gained: tee to green and strokes gained: around the greens.

“His ball striking is, honestly, on another level compared to everyone else right now. We knew if he started to hole putts then this sort of stuff would happen,” said Rory McIlroy, who suggested during an interview at last month’s Genesis Invitational that Scheffler try a mallet-headed putter.

Shane Lowry, who was paired with Scheffler on Sunday, echoed those thoughts: “He showed today why he’s world No. 1,” the Irishman said.

The victory solidifies Scheffler’s hold on the top spot in the world ranking and sets the 27-year-old up as the easy favorite heading into next week’s Players Championship. But it wasn’t the ranking or his lofty status that he was focused on following a triumph that felt more like a life lesson.

“I try to take that approach to all aspects of my game and sometimes when things aren’t going right, you try to be perfect and at times in the last year or so it’s definitely been frustrating knowing that I can hole putts and win tournaments and not being able to do it at the clip that I would like to,” Scheffler said.

It was a perfectly Scottie Scheffler moment when he realized that embracing the imperfect could produce a perfect performance.