‘I was relieved’ – Rory McIlroy’s one-in-a-million shot left Scottie Scheffler with rare feeling<\/p>\n
But when it came to the greens, the American superstar looked a shadow of himself.<\/p>\n
When it came to putts from 10 feet or more, Scheffler holed just three efforts.<\/p>\n
His woes with the putter meant he mustered a T-10 finish at the tournament and was nine shots behind eventual victor Hideki Matsuyama.<\/p>\n
One of Scheffler’s missed putts from 10 feet away was captured by the CBS crew, who had McIlroy<\/a> on the broadcast having finished his round.<\/p>\n What did McIlroy say about Scheffler’s putting woes?<\/p>\n Having witnessed Scheffler’s miscues on the green, McIlroy was asked if there was any advice he had for his colleague when it came to putting.<\/p>\n “For me, going to a mallet was a big change,” McIlroy, who finished T-24 at the 2024 Genesis Open, said.<\/p>\n “I really persisted with the blade putter for a long time, but I just feel like your stroke has to be so perfect to start the ball on line, where the mallet just gives you a little bit more margin for error.<\/p>\n “So, I’d love to see Scottie try a mallet. But selfishly for me, Scottie does everything else so well that he’s given the rest of us a chance.”<\/p>\n 3<\/p>\n Scheffler’s switch to a new putter earned him millions in prize moneyCredit: GettyWhat is the difference between a blade and mallet putter?<\/p>\n For the uninitiated, a blade putter is the more traditional-looking one rather than the mallet.<\/p>\n It has a blade-like appearance and usually features a thin and flat clubhead.<\/p>\n As for a mallet putter, they tend to have a more elaborate design and are known to be slightly more forgiving than a blade putter.<\/p>\n Coincidence or not, Scheffler began to use a Spider putter,<\/a> a type of mallet putter produced by golf brand TaylorMade, following McIlroy’s comments in March last year.<\/p>\n It was a move that paid off handsomely, as Scheffler went on to win The Masters,<\/a> The Players Championship, the Tour Championship and an Olympic gold medal.<\/p>\n Scheffler also scooped up his third-straight PGA Tour Player of the Year award, a feat no player had achieved since Tiger Woods did so from 2005 to 2007.<\/p>\n But if McIlroy thought he had a hand in Scheffler’s stunning season, <\/a>he was wrong.<\/p>\n 3<\/p>\n McIlroy may have regretted his advice to Scheffler on the putting front, even if others have claimed he didn’t inspire the changeCredit: GettyMyth surrounding McIlroy’s comments debunked<\/p>\n In an appearance on the Fore Play Podcast, Adrian Rietveld, who is the senior manager at TaylorMade, shot down the theory McIlroy had inspired the switch.<\/p>\n “It started way longer before Rory made that comment,” Rietveld said<\/a>.<\/p>\n “And it was really a project with, I do thank Rory for the comment though, definitely.<\/p>\n “Even if it contributed 1 per cent it was needed, because Scottie’s a tough switch.”<\/p>\n How did Scheffler’s putting improve after switching to a mallet putter?<\/p>\n The numbers behind Scheffler’s putting since the change proved the call to switch up his putter was the right one.<\/p>\n Since he debuted the Spider putter at the 2024 FedEx St Jude Championship, Scheffler boosted his percentage of putts made at mid-range.<\/p>\n At 10 to 15 feet, Scheffler improved from 26.4 per cent to 33. 4 per cent while his efforts from 15 to 20 feet rose from 21.1 per cent to 27.6 per cent.<\/p>\n 3<\/p>\n Since the start of 2024, Scheffler has won three out of a possible eight majors<\/p>\n Scheffler himself waxed lyrical about the Spider putter in March last year and noted how simpler it made the putting process.<\/p>\n “This Spider putter is really easy for me to line up,” Scheffler said.<\/p>\n “I don’t have to use the line on the ball. I line the putter up really well, and I line up in the middle of the face, and pretty much as simple as that.<\/p>\n “Kind of gives me just a really good visual.”<\/p>\n Scheffler has not featured on the fairways since the Ryder Cup, <\/a>where the United States lost on home soil to Europe<\/a> in a drama-filled event marred by unbecoming behaviour from patrons.<\/a><\/p>\n The world No. 1 is expected to return at the Hero World Challenge, which tees off on December 4 in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of golf’s biggest myths has been debunked and it’s unfortunate news for Rory McIlroy. At the 2024…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,6670,1172,94326,8693,2623,3026,94324,101,56,54,55,1232,94325],"class_list":{"0":"post-220839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-golf-news","10":"tag-latest","11":"tag-next-scottie-scheffler-tournament-appearance","12":"tag-pga-tour","13":"tag-rory-mcilroy","14":"tag-scottie-scheffler","15":"tag-scottie-scheffler-putting","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom","20":"tag-updates","21":"tag-what-putter-does-scottie-scheffler-use"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Scheffler's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/scottie-scheffler-united-states-lines-1018059824.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"McIlroy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GETTY_BMW-PGA-Championship-2025-Day-Four_SPO_GYI2235334864jpg-JS1023290120.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Since](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2226186882.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n