If Scottie Scheffler’s back nine is any indication of his future, he could win the Arnold Palmer Invitational for the second time in three years this weekend.
Scheffler’s putter caught fire. After burying a 45 footer for birdie on No. 15, he added birdies at 16 and 17 to become the sixth co-leader heading into the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Although his putting stats for the week are still lackluster (he’s 58th of 69 players), he’s top seven in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, Approach and Around the Green, a recipe for success at any golf course, but especially Arnie’s place.
“I think (putts) just went in today, and I would argue that there’s a few that I thought were going to go in that didn’t,” Scheffler said. “I would say that I’m proud of, the last couple days, getting off to poor starts, missing short putts on No. 11 today and yesterday, and kind of sticking to my process and doing a really good job of not letting things bother me. That’s kind of been my main goal this week, not trying to be perfect, just go out there and hit solid putts and see what happens.”
Scheffler is tied for the lead with the past two signature event winners, Hideki Matsuyama and Wyndham Clark, as well as Brian Harman, Russell Henley and Shane Lowry. Will Zalatoris sits solo seventh a shot behind.
During the Genesis Invitational broadcast, world No. 2 Rory McIlroy joked that Scottie Scheffler should switch to a mallet putter from a blade to help him be better on the putting surface.
This week, Scheffler has a mallet in the bag.
“My coach Randy joked about that at home because he had already thought about it, and I think Rory just had said it in a way in which he used the blade for a long time and then he switched to a mallet, and that’s something that works for him,” Scheffler said. “I think, as a lot of good players out here know, something that works for Rory may not work for me, and something that works for me may not work for Rory. I did hear that he said that, and it was just kind of funny timing.”
With his Players Championship title defense coming up next week, Scheffler is looking to carry some momentum into next week at a place he has hoisted the trophy before.
“I saw the wind was going to be up this weekend, so it may be a survival test,” Scheffler said. “It depends if they decide they want to water the greens and slow ’em down a little bit because they’re going to expect high winds. But we’ll see what they decide. I’m not in charge of golf course setup.”
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