Scheffler, Tardy each run away with victory | The Sunday Swing

The Sunday Swing 
March 10th, 2024 

Welcome back to another edition of the Sunday Swing presented by 2nd Swing Golf. This week in the professional golfing world, the PGA Tour was at Arnie’s Place at Bay Hill Club and Lodge for the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The LPGA Tour was still abroad in China, for the Blue Bay LPGA at Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Club.

Arnold Palmer Invitational - Tournament History 

The Arnold Palmer Invitational has been a staple on the PGA Tour since 1979. Regarded as one of the most coveted non major events on Tour, players have an opportunity to pay their respects to “The King” and slip on the famous red cardigan on Sunday. Bay Hill has always been a great challenge, with firm and fast greens and a lot of water hazards looking to play spoiler all week long. Back in 1998, John Daly proved that big numbers are out there, after he made an 18 on the par-5 6th hole. It seems every year someone goes full “tin cup” on this hole, hitting multiple tee balls in the water down the left hand side. Bay Hill is also known as one of Tiger Woods’ many stomping grounds, as he has won the event a mind boggling eight times in his career, including four years in a row from 2000-2003. Most years the course plays very difficult, with winners often being single digits under par. Historically a windy venue, players often find that scrambling for pars and playing the par-5’s well is the key to coming out on top of the leaderboard. There have been plenty of big name winners here throughout the years, and the most recent five champions are as follows: 

2024 - Scottie Scheffler (-15)
2023 - Kurt Kitayama (-9)
2022 - Scottie Scheffler (-5)
2021 - Bryson DeChambeau (-11)
2020 - Tyrell Hatton (-5) 

The Big Swing 

This week the Big Swing belongs to the No. 1 player in the world, Scottie Scheffler. The theme for Scottie the past couple of years has been striking the ball so well that he contends week in and week out, regardless of his putting struggles. He has won six times since first breaking through at the Phoenix Open a couple of years ago, including a green jacket and a PLAYERS title. Yet, somehow, it feels like this has been underwhelming for him, given how often he is inside the top 10 on leaderboards. Last season, Scheffler had a run of 18 consecutive top-12 finishes on the PGA Tour, a feat only bested by Tiger Woods in the 2000-01 season. 

Scheffler had lost strokes putting in eight of his last 11 events entering the Arnold Palmer Invitational. World No. 3 Rory McIlroy weighed in on the issue a few weeks ago at the Genesis Invitational, acknowledging that he’s been there before and recommended Scottie try a mallet-style putter instead of the traditional blade he has been using. This week at Bay Hill, Scheffler broke out a new putter, a TaylorMade Spider Tour X, seemingly taking the advice from McIlroy. 

It didn’t take long for Scheffler to see improvements on the greens, and the end result surprised no one, a victory for the world No. 1. After a mediocre putting day on Thursday en route to an opening two-under-par 70, it began to click. He gained strokes during the second round, powering a round of five-under 67 that put him in a tie for the lead with a plethora of others. 

On the weekend, Scheffler’s putter came to life to match the already-exquisite ball striking. He finished Saturday 10th in the field in strokes gained putting,, which helped him fend off tough conditions to shoot 70 and maintain a share of the lead entering the final day. One week after  co-leading through 54 holes, Shane Lowry again held a co-lead at 54 holes. Plus, Wyndham Clark, Will Zalatrois, Hideki Matsuyama, and Russell Henley were all within 2-shots of the lead. 

During Sunday’s final round, Scheffler took over. His elite ball striking continued. But the new TaylorMade Spider Tour X was scorching hot. On a day where scores were high and bogeys were plentiful, Scheffler played flawless golf from start to finish. After shooting a bogey-free 34 on the front nine, he put his foot on the gas and made four more birdies on the back nine to card a week's best round of 66 and win in runaway fashion. Scheffler won by five shots over Clark, with Lowry finishing solo third right behind. This marks Scheffler’s seventh PGA Tour win, and gives him a load of confidence as he heads to Ponte Vedra Beach to defend his title at The PLAYERS.

Winner’s Bag- Scottie Scheffler

Scottie Scheffler is a known TaylorMade staffer, and his bag has remained mostly the same over the past year or so. However, this season he has put the all new Taylormade Qi10 woods in his bag. Off the tee, Scheffler plays the Qi10 Driver at 8 degrees, along with a Qi10 3-wood at 15 degrees. He still carries Srixon ZU85 utility irons as his 3-iron and 4-iron. He has also stuck with the same irons that have provided him with the best ball striking in the world: the TaylorMade P7TWs (5-PW). His wedges are fairly unique in that he plays a pair of Titleist Vokey SM8s (50 and 56 degrees) and a Titleist WedgeWorks Proto lob wedge (60.5 degrees).The biggest reason the No. 1 golfer in the world returned to the winner’s circle this week was the putter change. Scheffler switched to a TaylorMade Spider Tour X, and it paid off. He finished fifth for the week in strokes gained putting, and was best in the field during his dominant final round.

In the World of Women’s Golf

This week the LPGA Tour continued its Asian swing, as they gathered at the Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Club for the Blue Bay LPGA. Similarly to Scottie Scheffler on the PGA Tour, Bailey Tardy ran away from the field this week to claim her first LPGA Tour title. 

The 27-year-old American hasn’t teed it up since January at the LPGA Drive On Championship where she missed the cut. With serious firepower in the field this week, Tardy certainly wasn’t considered to be one of the favorites. Lydia Ko, Minjee Lee, Celine Boutier, and two Chinese native stars – Xiyu Lin and Ruixin Liu. 

Tardy opened with rounds of 68 and 70 and was well clear of the cut line and in contention heading into the weekend. In order to claim her first win, she was going to have to take down major champions. On the weekend she rose to the occasion, shooting a 6-under 66 on Saturday and following it up with a 7-under 65 on Sunday to win by four. Her final round was highlighted by a stretch on the back nine where she made five birdies in seven holes. 

Ayaka Furue also shot 65 on Sunday, and made a big move up the leaderboard into solo 3rd. Another American Sarah Schmelzel finished 2nd alone four shots back at -15.