Scottie Scheffler Has Officially Left the Planet

It was remarkable in how unremarkable it was: another brilliant Sunday round, another win in 2024, another day at the office for Scottie Scheffler.

With a bogey-free 63 Scheffler leapfrogged 54-hole leader Justin Thomas early and never looked the slightest bit stressed as he cruised to a six-shot victory at the Hero World Challenge. The win is his eighth of 2024, a fitting exclamation point on what has been a truly wild year—let us not forget, of course, the birth of his first child and a one-hour stint in a Louisville jail cell.

“It’s been a great year, it's been a fun year,” Scheffler said. “I’ve been fortunate to get some wins out of some really good golf. This was another week where I played really solid and was able to see some nice results from that. Overall it was a pretty fun year."

Scheffler toyed around with a new putting grip this week, going with the claw on shorter putts. He said it's something he and his putting coach, Phil Kenyon, have been kicking around for months but he didn't feel quite ready to put it in play until this low-key week in the Bahamas. The sample size is small, but the results were excellent; he was third in strokes gained putting and didn't struggle at all switching between his conventional grip (for outside 15ish feet) and the new one.

“Going into this week it was something I wanted to test out. Like I said, you can always practice and do everything at home, but competition's just a slightly different animal. It was good to come out here and compete and play under pressure, play with the lead, play close to the lead most of the week and I felt really comfortable. I would definitely assume that it's going to be there in Maui. Like I said, I'll go home and assess the week, talk to Phil. Overall I felt like the results and the way I felt over the ball, I was really comfortable in competition and I was pretty pleased.”

If I’m one of the guys tasked with beating this guy, that is…not what I want to hear.

Early in the week Scheffler said he could be a bit “jealous” of Xander Schauffele’s year, which included two major championships to his one. Xander, in turn, is surely jealous of Scheffler’s ruthless consistency. Whereas some players are open about prioritizing the majors, Scheffler seems to bring the same intensity to the Bahamas that he does to Augusta. Perhaps intensity isn’t the right word—he doesn’t seem to be expend an ounce more energy on the course than he absolutely needs to. He doesn’t live and die with every result like some players do. He says golf is only part of his life and you believe him. It’s a useful outlook to have in this line of work, and it is not one that can be faked.

“I try to approach each event the same. I think when I'm practicing and playing at home, the majors are always kind of in the back of your head. When you're practicing, the majors are always kind of there.

But as far as my career and stuff goes, that's not something that I try to think about too much. I try to, when I'm practicing, be focused on what I'm doing and the things that I want to work on to prepare for those golf tournaments."

“Right now I have a good understanding of what it feels like to be in the heat of the moment and under pressure. When I'm at home practicing and playing, I'm preparing to go out and play in those tournaments. I am excited for next season, I'm excited to get home and get some rest over the next couple weeks and prepare for another season.”

Monday will mark 82 consecutive weeks that Scheffler’s been the No. 1 in the world. His reign at the top began before this crazy year—the question now is how deep into 2025 will it stretch?