According to Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 player, he’s always looking for ways to improve his game. This week, it led him to fiddling around with a new driver.
That, naturally, led to the question: Is he or isn’t he making a driver change on the eve of one of the most important tournaments of the year? And then, the next question would be why would he want to make a switch?
“With the new driver, I've seen my spin numbers … become more consistent, which is really nice,” he said. “So, it’s like, okay, if my spins can stay a little closer together and the ball can go a little bit further, in theory it should be more accurate. But I’m a guy that shapes the ball and does a lot of different things, and so sometimes those little differences can be a bit of an adjustment for me, and so a lot of that I’m still kind of working through.”
He added some more verbiage and then admitted it was a long way around to say “no comment” on drivers.
But he had plenty to say about TPC Sawgrass.
“I think you see a variety of winners, and you also don’t see one style of player winning this tournament a bunch of times,” he explained.
Certain holes favor the longer hitter, and others favor the less long hitters. Nobody’s really short any more.
“But this golf course, with the trees, forces you to have to do different things with your golf ball. And I think it's something that’s rare in today’s day and age,” he noted. “I feel like the game is trying to combat distance by making things longer, but it really just leans into guys just trying to hit the ball further and further because we’re not forced to curve the ball different directions.”
And he went through part of the front nine, listing the first and second shots he hits.
“No. 1 is a fade off the tee, the second shot is a draw.
“No. 2, the tee shot’s a draw and the second shot suits a fade.
(He skipped the third because it’s a par three.)
“And then you get to 4, fade.
“5, fade.
“6, draw.
“7, draw off the tee,” he explained.
This is more or less what Tiger Woods said about the course many years ago.
“When you look at this golf course, you’re forced to hit certain shots,” he insisted. “And you get wind, and then when the greens are firm, they’re also quite small in some areas, so you have to be able to control your spin and trajectory while hitting it solid enough to make sure you don’t get gusted by the wind.”
That makes the course a real challenge for the best players today, even though it was built in 1980 and 1981, more than 45 years ago. And that’s the brilliance of Pete Dye, and the courage of Deane Beman for letting Dye do his thing. And don’t you just think Dye is up there in the clouds somewhere looking down and laughing every time somebody tries to hit a shot where they shouldn’t? I think he is.
