World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler Ends Year With Satisfying Win at Hero World Challenge

The Texan had a solid season that would have been stronger with better putting; recent work on that showed out in the Bahamas.

NASSAU, Bahamas — For a casual, offseason event in the Bahamas, Scottie Scheffler sure seemed to take the proceedings seriously, cruising to a three-shot victory on Sunday over Sepp Straka to end 2023 with another positive result.

Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, shot a final-round 68 at Albany to win for the first time since his Players Championship victory in March.

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Although the tournament is unofficial and won’t add to his six-tournament PGA Tour victory total, it was satisfying nonetheless. In just more than a month, the 2024 season begins and Scheffler seemed to sort out some of the putting issues that kept him from having an even better 2023.

Scottie Scheffler finished the year with an impressive win at Tiger Woods's Hero World Challenge :: Fernando Llano/AP

"I'm very pleased with my game," Scheffler said. “I felt like coming into this week I felt like I was in a good spot, but I didn't really know because I hadn't really played much tournament golf.

"Got off to a pretty slow start the first day, but ever since I think probably after the first six holes I played some really, really great golf. That’s why I'm walking out of here with a win versus coming out not with a win. I'm very pleased with how I putted, I feel like I rolled it solid. It's definitely nice to see some early results with the stuff that Phil and I have been working on."

Phil would be Phil Kenyon, a noted putting guru who works with several players in the game.

Scheffler, who was 162nd on the PGA Tour in strokes-gained putting, had 10 top-10 finishes including nine in the top five without a victory after winning the Players. He also finished second twice and third three times and it appeared with just decent putting, he could have easily added to his two victories.

For the year, Scheffler ranked first in strokes-gained total, strokes-gained off the tee and strokes-gained approach.

He again was first in the 20-man field in strokes-gained total this week and was sixth in putting.

"Great confidence going into next year," he said. “We got maybe four weeks until we leave again, so it's definitely nice kind of having the momentum of a win as I go into preparing for next season. Yeah, I mean, couldn't get better momentum than this."