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Scottie Scheffler holds the champions trophy after winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament. Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

Rory McIlroy may have turned Scottie Scheffler invincible

By Jack Dougherty | Last updated 3/11/24

Scottie Scheffler is about to become an unstoppable force on the PGA Tour, and it might be all Rory McIlroy's fault.

Before last week, Scheffler was Thanos with five of the six Infinity Stones in his possession. All he needed was to fix his putting to complete the Infinity Gauntlet and ravage the rest of the golf world.

Ahead of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the World No. 1 switched out his blade putter for a TaylorMade Spider Tour X mallet and immediately found success.

Scheffler, who ranked 144th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained from putting heading into the API, rode his new secret weapon to a dominant, five-shot victory at Bay Hill Club and Lodge.

He finished the week ranked first in putting average, sixth in total putts and fifth in strokes gained from putting. The superstar didn't have a single three-putt all week, and he made each of his last 23 putts from 15 feet and in (per Justin Ray) to drown the rest of the loaded field.

Ranks this week for Scottie Scheffler:

T1 in 3-Putt Avoidance (0)
1st in Putting Average (1.58)
1st in SG: Off-the-Tee (+1.262)
T1 in Bogey Avoidance (9.72%%)
T1 in Par 4 Scoring Average (3.90)
1st in Par 5 Scoring Average (4.20)
1st in SG: Around-the-Green (+0.947) pic.twitter.com/0hho67RU1c
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 11, 2024

It was only the sixth time since the 2022 WM Phoenix Open that Scheffler gained at least 3.32 true strokes on the greens (Data Golf). He won four of those other five tournaments and finished one stroke back of the winner in the other.

With how consistently elite Scheffler is with his driver, irons and wedges, he's nearly invincible whenever he has a strong putting week. It doesn't happen often, but it might now that he's found a putter he feels comfortable with.

So, how is McIlroy involved in all this? At The Genesis Invitational, the World No. 2 reluctantly suggested that Scheffler should switch to a mallet putter.

"For me, going to a mallet was a big change," McIlroy said on the CBS broadcast (h/t: golf.com). "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.

"So, I’d love to see Scottie try a mallet, but selfishly for me, you know, Scottie does everything else so well that, you know, he’s giving the rest of us a chance."

A few weeks later, Scheffler took McIlroy's advice and won a signature event in a rout. Whoops.

Next up is the Players Championship, a tournament Scheffler won by five strokes last year despite ranking 48th in the 75-man field in strokes gained from putting.

We could be on the cusp of a Tiger Woods-esque run from Scheffler in the coming months.

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