All eyes were already on Scottie Scheffler ahead of the Hero World Challenge after the world number one enjoyed one of the all-time great years in 2024.
One of the only question marks which remains over Scottie Scheffler is whether he can replicate anything like what he achieved in 2024. He won eight times worldwide, and just seemed to barely put a foot wrong throughout the entire year.
But, perhaps ominously for all of his rivals, Scheffler has decided to make a significant change to his game. The 28-year-old is now using a claw grip on certain putts. Unsurprisingly, plenty of golf fans were left stunned by Scheffler deciding to make the change ahead of the Hero World Challenge.
Scheffler was far from perfect on the greens last year – finding himself 77th on the PGA Tour for strokes gained putting – but clearly, he was more than good enough to dominate throughout the season.
Tiger Woods issues his verdict on Scottie Scheffler changing his putting grip
Tiger Woods has now issued his verdict. Speaking on Golf Channel, the 15-time major champion admitted that he was taken aback when he noticed Scheffler make the change.
He said: “It just came about. I saw it on Wednesday. I thought what is that thing! [Things were going pretty well], now they are going even better!
“You know he can do it either way, he has got amazing feel. You see that with his short game and trajectory control into the greens. If he has consistent weeks or consistent times on the greens, he is going to finish top 10 every week and pick off a lot.”
When Woods decided to shock the golfing world by making a change to his game
Of course, if anyone knows about baffling the golfing world by making a change, it is Woods. His decision to change his swing while working with Butch Harmon early on in his career when he already appeared to be on his way towards superstardom is one of the most widely-debated decisions in the game’s recent history.
We will never know whether Woods made the right decision. However, it did not prevent him from establishing himself as arguably the greatest player of all-time.
Scheffler’s putting change is not as significant. It was the weakest part of his game, and seems to be the one area where he can still make a vast improvement. He is also not using the claw grip on every putt he hits.
But, much like Woods, he is determined to not allow himself to grow complacent after reaching the golfing summit over the last couple of years.
He had 16 top 10s on the PGA Tour in 2024. It is frightening to imagine how much better it could get.
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