Scottie Scheffler not playing TaylorMade’s final driver for the second year in a row may be history now, but it won’t be in a month or so.
Scheffler surprised many by returning to his TaylorMade Qi10 driver, which has won him three majors and 14 PGA Tour events, last month in his American Express season debut. This was after the debut The new Qi4D on the Hero World Challenge in its previous launch in December and on the Golf Channel Games that month. He would, of course, end up winning in Palm Springs.
This week, Scheffler showed up at TPC Scottsdale on Monday and went right to work Adrian Reitveld of TaylorMade and coach Randy Smith at the new driver test. The trio, and caddy Ted Scott, spent several hours on the range, with several different ones Qi4D heads and various Fujikura Ventus Black shafts in search of “the one”.
After his round on Friday, Scheffler stormed back a double opening day with a six-under 65 to make the cut, he gave us a glimpse into the process.
“I’m a little adverse to change as it is, and I have a driver in my bag that has won a lot of golf tournaments; had a lot of success with it,” Scheffler said. “It’s just one of those things that’s difficult. I’m not going to put anything in the bag unless I feel it’s better. We’re getting really close. There’s some improvement I’ve seen for sure in the young driver. It’s just not done enough for me to put him in contention.”
With the level of success Scheffler has had with his Qi10, it makes sense that he would want to stick with it. He said earlier this week that he becomes “emotionally attached” to certain clubs.
“Once you get a feel for a club, you know, I think feel is such a big part of the game, so changing clubs can be difficult,” he said Wednesday. “Even when I have the greatest club maker in the world make me a set of irons and he spec’d them and he checked every inch of them, I have a guy at TaylorMade who takes great care of me, and even then I still find differences and other things that I have to get used to.”
Reitveld, that “guy at TaylorMade,” was one of the reasons Scheffler finished signing with TaylorMade in 2022in the midst of his first four-game winning streak that culminated in his first Masters.
“It was like, hey, ‘I love the equipment, I love the guys I’ve been able to work with,’ Scheffler said. “Adrian was one of the first people I worked with in the company. He takes care of everything for me. My clubs don’t usually start a tournament without setting eyes on them here on the road.”
That’s why Scheffler and Reitveld are taking their time on it Scheffler’s transition to new leadership. Are there performance reasons for doing this? Absolutely or else they wouldn’t even bother with it.
Scottie Scheffler, Adrian Reitveld and Randy Smith test drivers on Monday
Jack Hirsh/GOLF
But when you have a guy like Scheffler, who is in the middle of a generational streak in part because of the comfort level he has with his clubs, the goal is to make sure Scheffler is as comfortable as possible. Once he’s there, then the new driver, or any club, will go into the bag.
There’s a certain level of trust Scheffler has in Reitveld and the TaylorMade team, and they’ve learned a lot over the years of working together. They will get this right.
;)
