Scottie Scheffler’s putter switch among 4 things to know from Mayakoba

After a dreadful putting round on Friday, Scottie Scheffler switched back to old faithful and switched back to making birdies Sunday.

The world No. 2 made seven birdies and a hole-out eagle to shoot a bogey-free 9-under 62 at El Camaleon Golf Course at the 2022 World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. It’s the lowest final-round score of his PGA Tour career and lifted him to a five-way tie for third.

Without Shotlink data this week in Riviera Maya, Mexico, it’s hard to say definitively how poorly Scheffler putted on Friday, but it was poor enough for him to shelve the Scotty Cameron T-5.5 Proto mallet putter he used two weeks ago at the CJ Cup in South Carolina and return to the model that he used to win the Masters.

“It never goes too far away,” Scheffler said of his Scotty Cameron Newport 2. “I went back to my old putter for the round yesterday. I think when I see so many putts go up to the cup and not go in, it was like, well, maybe I’ll just make a change and see what happens. This is the time of year when I’ll usually experiment with stuff. It’s probably something I’ll continue to fiddle around with.”

Scheffler’s day got off to a promising start with a hole-out at the par-4 third hole from 108 yards.

“There was nobody at the green and I hit a good shot and it looked like it landed close, but we couldn’t really see, couldn’t really hear anything, nobody was clapping or nothing. So when I got up there, I was like, ‘Oh, man, it must have spun off the green. Then I checked the cup and it was in,” Scheffler said.

How much was Scheffler thinking about the fact he needed either a win or to finish solo second to overtake Rory McIlroy and reclaim world No. 1?

“I was just trying to show up and have a good round of golf,” he said. “Rankings are great, it was definitely fun being No. 1 in the world, it’s definitely something I hope to get back to, but it’s not something that’s going to occupy a lot of my thoughts.”

Scheffler is scheduled to play next week in the Cadence Houston Open, a tournament he nearly won last year. Confidence is high after shooting his sixth round of 62 or lower since the beginning of 2019, most of any player on Tour in that span.

“A few things go my way, a few more putts go in, I could have been right in the tournament,” Scheffler said.