This season, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler ranks 135th in Stokes Gained: Putting. Rory McIlroy is 84th.
Despite the struggles with the flat-stick, both players have won twice in the 2022-23 campaign: Scheffler at the Players and WM Phoenix Open, McIlroy at the CJ Cup and Scottish Open.
But those win totals could be even higher with decent showings on the greens. Scheffler finished T-5 or better in seven straight events from the AT&T Byron Nelson to Scottish Open. McIlroy is currently on a run of seven straight finishes of T-9 or better.
If either player got it going on the greens, they could be looking at four or five wins this season.
As the two best players in the world arrived at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee, for the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first event of the playoffs, they were spotted practicing with different putters.
It’s three Spiders (two with steel shafts and one with LA Golf graphite) with the same plumbers neck. Cameron has steel shaft and an insert.
— Jonathan Wall (@jonathanrwall) August 8, 2023
As for McIlroy, he played his practice round Tuesday with a Scotty Cameron Phantom 5.5.
New flat stick for Rory this week 👀 pic.twitter.com/dB9OQpg4Fc
— LKD (@LukeKerrDineen) August 8, 2023
The Northern Irishman put an old Scotty in the bag in March at the WGC Dell Match Play but went back to his TaylorMade Spider X shortly thereafter.
Scheffler made a change recently at the U.S. Open, putting a wider-bodied Scotty Cameron in the bag.
McIlroy, Scheffler and Jon Rahm will play together for the first two rounds in Memphis. The trio tees off Thursday at 10:26 a.m. ET.
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