Matthew Coritz

Uh oh, Scottie learned how to putt. With a simply breathtaking performance, Scottie Scheffler blitzed the field at Bay Hill to take home the Arnold Palmer Invitational title. Outside a couple of funky misses short on the early par 3’s where he pulled the wrong club, he seemingly stepped up and hit the ball exactly where he was looking every single time. He was on autopilot all day, sending dart after dart, marching up and knocking it in.  In round 4, he led the field in strokes gained putting, holing 16/16 putts inside 15 feet. He ended up gaining over a stroke for the event, finishing inside the top 10 in all facets of strokes gained: putting, approach to the green, around the green, and off the tee. A lethal combination. 

Rory Mcilroy might have to pay up for unleashing this beast on the rest of pro golf. After another week of Scheffler’s putting struggles with his trusty Scotty Cameron blade, Rory was quoted saying, “I feel like my stroke has to be so perfect when using a blade, and the mallet really gives me margin for error. So I’d love to see Scottie try a mallet. But selfishly, for me, Scottie does everything else so well that he’s giving the rest of us a chance.” One week into this new equipment change, Rory and the rest of the players are certainly hoping this was a one-week aberration and not the new norm. 

Finally, a signature event with real juice. The PGA Tour has endured a rough start to the season with little buzz being generated by a combo of lower-profile winners and non-exciting finishes. The Genesis was solid but the Tiger withdrawal and Spieth disqualification really sucked the life out of an otherwise fun weekend. There was plenty of star power at the top of the leaderboard but also quite a few stinkers put up from some of the top 20 players in the world rankings. Rory was never really in it and shot 76 on Sunday. Hovland hasn’t been the same player we saw last summer, and had back-to-back 75’s on the weekend. Collin Morikawa, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Tommy Fleetwood all managed to be three of the 11 players to miss the cut.  

Scottie outclassed the field in a way only the best player in the world can. A player of his caliber just looks inevitable when he has all facets of his game going. How satisfying it is when you get to watch the best in the world at his best. A player like Scottie simply has a level that others cannot reach and it was on full display late Saturday into the full final round on Sunday. 

Bay Hill is such an awesome venue. When courses are difficult, the match is so much easier to follow— you can easily tell when somebody is doing something special, exactly like what Scottie did this past week. In years past, this tournament was always a dogfight, and as noted many times on the broadcast, the winner is quite often in single digits. There are some goofy holes and some ludicrous shots required but it’s a proper test and it frequently produces great champions. It’s a course that fans can look to each and every year for an entertaining week.

The Players next weekend should be fun. TPC Sawgrass is always amazing television, has a brilliant design, and has one of, if not the best, finishing stretches in golf. Are we going to see a Scheffler repeat? If the putting is for real something we could be seeing a star dominate the game just in the way golf needs to pull the average fan back in. See you next week.