WATCH: Lee Trevino breaks down Scottie Scheffler’s putting woes

This past summer, Scottie Scheffler’s putting misfortunes were well publicised.

Despite having one of the greatest ball-striking seasons ever on the PGA Tour, the World No 1 only managed to win twice, and his putting difficulties even attracting the attention of golf legend Lee Trevino.

The icon has turned up to the PNC Championship for the 26th time and, with the media buzz about he zeroed in on Scheffler’s struggles.

As a guest on GOLF’s Subpar podcast, Trevino told co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz that Scheffler was struggling with a mistake many golfers deal with.

“He’s a hitter. He hits [putts, as opposed to stroking them]. And when you don’t stroke a putt and you take a putter back and you hit it, you can’t have the ball too far forward, that’s where you make the mistake,” Trevino said. “Bad putters, when you start having putting problems, generally it’s because the ball is too far forward in your stance.”

Trevino didn’t feel that he was speaking out of turn having already reached out to Scheffler’s coach to let them know his thoughts.

“You’re a tree with 2 limbs. Your limbs can only go that far that way” Trevino said. “In other words, the trunks not moving. So in putting, if the arms can only go so far out and if the ball is way up there, it’s going to start rotating. The putter will start rotating to the left. Then you’ll try to compensate, then you’ll push to the right.

“If you noticed, he pushed a lot of putts, pulled a lot of putts, and then he got it straightened out.”

Scheffler ended his 2023 on a high note though, nine months after he claimed his sixth US PGA Tour title at the Players Championship he broke his drought at the Hero World Challenge and notably put in a greatly improved performance on the green.

Putting problems had held Scheffler back, but in the Bahamas he showed his recent work with putting coach Phil Kenyon was starting to pay off.

“I was optimistic going into this week,” Scheffler said. “It’s nice to see some fast results from the stuff we’ve been working on. It was nice to see some putts go in.”

Scheffler also changed his putter using a custom-made Logan Olson club for his win in the Bahamas.

“Putting’s one of those things, I think what Phil has helped me the most with is just getting a clear mind,” Scheffler said. “Right now I feel like my mechanics are in a good place to where I can use my athletic ability instead of using it more as a crutch, kind of overusing my athletic ability. It’s kind of hard to explain, but I felt like I was using too much, like too much hands and stuff like that in my stroke. That’s something I also battled with my swing when I was in college. I found myself in certain mechanical positions in my swing that I was having to use my hands so much that they became more of a hindrance, if that makes sense.”