Scottie Scheffler suggests what he used to do before he hit putts which he now thinks is ‘weird’

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It is ominous for the rest of the PGA Tour that Scottie Scheffler has now become one of the very best putters in the game, with the world number one much closer to the middle of the pack in 2024.

Scottie Scheffler won nine times worldwide in 2024, with The Masters, The Players Championship, the Olympic Games and the Tour Championship among his victories.

Remarkably, he did it with the 28-year-old proving to be an average putter on the PGA Tour. Scheffler was 77th for strokes gained on the greens in 2024. His outstanding approach play made up for much of the problems he had on the putting surfaces.

But much seems to have changed this year.

Scottie Scheffler shares what he used to do when putting which he finds ‘weird’ now

Scheffler is now 20th for strokes gained on the greens. He has won three times, including at the PGA Championship. And it seems that his improved putting has helped Scheffler retain his place at the summit of the game.

Phil Kenyon spoke about getting Scheffler to read greens for himself once they started working together, with Ted Scott previously being involved in that process. Meanwhile, he switched to a mallet putter early on in the 2024 season.

But those are not the only changes Scheffler has made. Speaking with Nelly Korda in a video for TaylorMade, Scheffler explained why he no longer takes practice strokes next to the ball.

“When I was younger, I used to do practice strokes, but I’ve done pretty much every way you could imagine. I’ve done it next to the ball, I’ve done it like this behind the ball, but the way I liked it the best was when you’re back here [facing the hole] just looking down the line because then you actually get the picture of what you want to do,” Scheffler said.

Korda replied: “For me, I never liked it next to the ball because then I was training my head to look this way instead of visualising the line this way. I don’t know.”

“I always feel there’s a weird orientation too. I took practice swings here [next to the ball], but then you move and it changes the angle. I also felt, for me, it was too much time over the ball. I just wanted to get a good picture, get in there and then just hit it,” Scheffler added.

The field would have been grateful for Scottie Scheffler’s putting on Sunday at the US Open

Remarkably, there was a moment during the final round of the US Open when it really appeared that Scheffler was in contention to win. He was playing well as the leaders were starting to come back towards the field.

Scheffler gained 3.83 shots with his approach play on Sunday, with only Tony Finau and Ryan Fox performing better in that category.

However, Scheffler seemed to fail to take any of the glorious chances he left himself. Viktor Hovland was the only player in the top 10 who performed worse on the greens on Sunday.

Had he holed one or two of those putts around the turn in the final round, it would not have been a surprise to see Scheffler go on more of a charge.

And you would imagine that that putt on 18 would have been even more daunting for J.J. Spaun if he somehow had Scheffler breathing down his neck.