New putting grip, same old Scottie Scheffler.
The World No. 1 shot a blazing 9-under-par 63 on Sunday to repeat at the Hero World Challenge, winning by six shots over South Korea’s Tom Kim at Albany Golf Course in Nassau, Bahamas.
Scheffler rolled in nine birdie putts, the longest a 49-footer at the par-4 fourth hole, as he finished the week at 25-under-par 263 to win Tiger Woods’ exclusive exhibition tournament for the second straight December.
He stuck his approach shot at the par-4 18th inside 4 feet and finished up with a birdie.
Scheffler completed a banner year in which he won The Players Championship, the Masters, an Olympic gold medal and the Tour Championship.
“I think it’s been a great year, it’s been a fun year,” Scheffler said. “I’ve been fortunate to get some wins and have some really good golf. This was another week when I played really solid and was able to see some nice results from that. Overall it was a pretty, pretty fun year.”
That said, he wasn’t satisfied with his game and debuted a new putting grip that he said was introduced to him by his putting coach, Phil Kenyon.
“I think Phil calls it a claw, but he really doesn’t even say that,” Scheffler said Thursday. “He just says ‘I want you to try a little bit’ and he points his hand like that and wherever my hand felt good, that’s where we settled. Not trying to think too much about it, trying to keep things simple.”
Scheffler held the 36-hole lead but was passed by Justin Thomas on Saturday. Thomas had an uneven fourth round for his highest score of the week, a 71 (five birdies, four bogeys), and he finished third at 18 under, seven behind Scheffler and one behind Kim (final-round 68).
“It’s just disappointing,” said Thomas, who hasn’t won a tournament of any kind since the 2022 PGA Championship.
“I would have liked to put a little more heat obviously on Scottie going in the back nine. You know, I felt like I got a couple bad breaks there on the par 3s, the wind completely died or switched on 5. But I mean, you know, obviously I can’t expect to have good things happen when I’m leading by 1 over Scottie and only shooting 1 under on Sunday.”
Akshay Bhatia (69) placed fourth at 15 under and U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley (71) took fifth at 14 under.
Other notable finishes included Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg in sixth at 12 under; Patrick Cantlay in 11th at 7 under; Brian Harman in 12th at 6 under; and Australian Jason Day tied for 19th (last) at 1 over with Russell Henley.
Woods did not play this week, saying before the tournament his health is “still not there” and he is not “tournament-sharp” at the moment.
–Field Level Media
