For two years, the narrative around Scottie Scheffler was the same: best ballstriker on the planet, worst putter among the elite. It was the one thing everyone agreed on. In 2023, he ranked 162nd on the PGA Tour in strokes gained: putting. In 2024, he climbed to 77th — still unremarkable for a player winning at the rate he was. So when the 2025 season started, the question was still the same one it had been for years. Can Scottie actually putt?
The answer, it turns out, was a quiet yes. And the data behind it is more interesting than anyone expected.
The Number That Changed
Scheffler finished the 2025 season ranked 22nd on tour in strokes gained: putting — his best season with the flat stick by a significant margin. He gained an average of 0.362 strokes per round on the greens. That's not just a step up from previous years. It's a step up into legitimately elite territory, for a player who was already winning six times on tour.
But here's what's worth looking at more closely: it wasn't just that he got better. The way he got better follows a pattern that shows up across the data if you know where to look.
It Wasn't One Thing. It Was a System.
The putting turnaround didn't happen overnight. It started in March 2024, when Scheffler switched from a blade putter to a TaylorMade Spider mallet — a move that felt overdue to anyone watching the shot-level data. His three-putt rate dropped immediately. Then in December 2024, he added a claw grip for putts inside 20 feet, working with putting coach Phil Kenyon. By the time the 2025 season was in full swing, both changes had compounded.
"The best putters on tour aren't necessarily the ones who make the most spectacular shots. They're the ones who almost never three-putt."
The three-putt number is where you really see it. Scheffler's three-putt rate in 2025 was 1.4% — cut in half from the year before. For context, tour average hovers around 2.5 to 3%. That's not just good. For a player who hits greens in regulation at one of the highest rates on tour, it means he's rarely giving shots back on the greens he works so hard to reach.
Why This Matters Beyond the Putting Line
Scheffler led 28 different statistical categories on the PGA Tour in 2025 — including total strokes gained (2.743), tee to green (2.361), and approach (1.291). He posted a scoring average of 68.13, the best on tour and one of the lowest single-season averages in PGA Tour history. But none of those numbers were possible at the level they reached without the putting improvement.
This is the part of the data that gets lost in the headline. Strokes gained categories don't exist in isolation. A player who consistently puts themselves on the green in regulation and then almost never three-putts is converting potential into actual scores at a rate that compounds over 72 holes. That's what happened in 2025. The ballstriker everyone already knew about finally had the putter to match.
The Bigger Lesson
Scheffler's putting arc — 162nd in 2023, 77th in 2024, 22nd in 2025 — is one of the clearest examples on the PGA Tour of what deliberate equipment and technique changes look like in the data over time. It didn't happen in a week. It happened in layers, and each layer showed up in the numbers before it showed up in the headlines.
The next time you see a player ranked poorly in a single category, don't assume it's permanent. Pull up the year-over-year trend. The data almost always has more to say than the snapshot.
Stats via DataGolf · 2025 PGA Tour season · Full-season totals
