Breakfast Ball #48: Storm Scheffler Strikes the Bahamas

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In This Week’s Newsletter:

Scheffler Caps Off an Illustrious 2024 with a Win at the Hero World Challenge

Greatness in sports can be defined in many different ways. Pure statistics may be the drink of choice for most people. DataGolf estimates that Scottie Scheffler’s 2024 season was the sixth-best since 1983, when their records began. To put that in perspective, all of the seasons above Scheffler belong to Tiger Woods, meaning that he just had the best non-Tiger Woods season of the last 40 years.

However, there’s a unique kind of greatness that emerges only after sustained dominance: inevitability.

Over recent years, we've witnessed this in sports time and again—Pep Guardiola's Manchester City teams post-Christmas, Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs in the 4th quarter (how do they keep winning?), and the once-feared Dublin Gaelic footballers before their decline. And in golf, when Scottie Scheffler is near the top of the leaderboard on Saturday, you can't help but feel that his victory is all but assured. It’s as though his success is written in the stars.

Scheffler went into the final round of this weekend’s Hero World Challenge one shot behind Justin Thomas, who was trying to end a two year winless drought. However, Scheffler’s path to victory was already set.

The two-time Masters champion fired a final round 63 and stormed to a six shot win over Tom Kim in second and Thomas in third. The tournament is an invitational hosted by Tiger Woods with only 20 players in the field, yet Scheffler ended the week 26 shots ahead of Jason Day and Russell Henley in last place.

Scottie Scheffler’s long-time weakness has been his putting, but 2024 was the best putting year of his career to date. Much of that gain can likely be attributed to his new putting coach, Englishman Phil Kenyon. Scheffler’s strokes gained putting was above average in 15 of 27 events, and in those, he won eight times, never finishing worse than eighth. In a continued effort to improve, Scheffler introduced a new claw putting grip for short and mid-range putts during this weekend’s tournament. The result? He gained nearly a stroke per round on the greens, contributing to an inevitable victory.

Scheffler is clearly a very talented golfer, but his mentality sets him apart from the field during the most high pressure moments. Scheffler: “I'm always trying to improve, trying to do little things to get better. I don't think about records, I don't think about achievements, wins, losses, I just try and get the most out of myself and come out here and compete and have a good attitude.”

With momentum from a historic 2024, he heads into the new year as the undisputed king of golf.

Other News and Results

• 🇺🇸 Johannes Veerman became the second American in as many weeks to win on the DP World Tour with a one stroke victory at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa

  • This was a strong field with many PGA Tour and former Ryder Cup players, but Veerman came out on top

  • 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Matthew Jordan and 🇫🇷 Romain Langasque were the best of the Europeans in a tie for second

• 🌶️ Joaquin Niemann won the PIF Saudi International in a three-way playoff on the Asian Tour ahead of a large group of LIV golfers

  • 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Tyrell Hatton finished in fifth place, two shots behind the Chilean

• 💵 Money was a talking point again this week, as many players reacted to the news that the US Ryder Cup team are reportedly getting paid for participation in the competition next year

  • Tiger: “We didn't want to get paid. We wanted to give more money to charity. And then the media spun it around and said we wanted to get paid”

  • Bob MacIntyre: “It will never be about money for us Europeans. I think it is just a different culture. We play in a Ryder Cup for different reasons and I think it showed last year. I am totally fine with how the Americans are.”

Coming up this week on Tour

• The DP World Tour is staying in South Africa for the Alfred Dunhill Championship

• The final round of PGA Tour Q-School is taking place, with 11 Europeans vying for one of the five PGA Tour cards on offer

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