Robert TheodorsonScottie Scheffler’s 22nd career victory was sealed in spectacular, yet familiar fashion on Sunday at the PGA Tour Championship, the final leg of the Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs.
The come-from-behind victory marked Scheffler’s second Tour Championship win in three years, and gave Scheffler an even greater stranglehold on the mantle of World Number One and status as the greatest golfer in the world, for which he has been revered and universally recognised as such since 2024.
Scheffler started Sunday afternoon three strokes behind leader Viktor Hovland and two behind surprise finalist Ryan Gerard.
As he had done so many times before, Scheffler used his opponent’s slim lead to his own advantage, and seemingly turned the proverbial switch on once again. Sunday played out exactly how we all figured it would with Scheffler tackling the course, besting the field, and securing yet another come-from-behind victory. At this point it’s almost routine, almost.
The Par 4 16th was the hole that played a huge part in crowning the eventual champion and dashed the dreams of Hovland, the 2023 tournament winner.
After bogeying the 14th and having his lead drop to one, Scheffler was cool, calm and collected and rebounded almost immediately on the 16th – birding the hole in style. The result being a two-stroke advantage that brought Scheffler’s score of 16-under par over Hovland’s 14-under par.
When it was Hovland’s turn to make a relatively simple birdie putt on that same hole that would have dropped Scheffler’s advantage to one, the ball skipped over the hole ever so gently in what must have seemed like a snakebite to Hovland who in all honesty, executed the putt to near perfection.
Scottie Scheffler FedEx Cup Winning WITB
The scorecard tells one version of Scheffler’s closing stretch. His equipment provides another. The world’s best players tend not to make changes because a launch campaign has produced a handsome photograph; clubs have to survive rather more exacting scrutiny than that.
Scheffler is particularly meticulous about the equipment that earns a place in his bag. Changes generally arrive only when testing produces a measurable improvement, which makes the switches behind this FedEx Cup-winning set-up rather more interesting than the usual weekly inventory of shafts and swingweights.
The switch to Qi4D driver
One of the most significant recent changes came with the Qi4D driver, where the noticeable gain for Scheffler was ball speed.
The point was demonstrated rather emphatically one hole after the decisive action at the 16th. On the 17th at the TOUR Championship, Scheffler sent his drive 350 yards to the left side of the fairway at 185 MPH ball speed.
TaylorMade Senior Tour Manager Adrian Rietveld said the development process was based around producing the speed Scheffler wanted without compromising the characteristics he relies upon to shape shots.
“From the beginning, Scottie told us that Qi4D has been faster and it holds the spin better than his previous driver. Since then, we have worked relentlessly based off his feedback to give him a driver that perfects every performance variable that is unique to him.
To his core, Scottie is a shot maker and the look and speed of the driver he won with today enabled him to be exactly that off the tee.”
The build was refined from the positioning of its four adjustable weights through to the way the driver sat to Scheffler’s eye at address. For a player who makes his living controlling golf balls to fairly unreasonable standards, appearances at address are rather more than cosmetic.
Scheffler recorded his first victory with the Qi4D at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. He finished that tournament 11th in SG at 2.251 and 12th in the category during the final round at 1.273.
During his record-setting 61 in the second round, he was T2 in driving accuracy after finding 11 of 14 fairways.
The ball-speed numbers were equally revealing. Scheffler averaged 181.66 MPH with driver in Memphis and 180.86 MPH during his second start with the Qi4D at the BMW Championship. At the TOUR Championship he produced multiple drives above 180 MPH, comfortably beyond his season average of 178.78 MPH entering the tournament.
Scottie’s Qi4D Driver Spec
- HEAD: Qi4D 8.0°
- EXACT LOFT: 7.8°
- LOFT SLEEVE: Standard Upright
- FRONT WEIGHTS: 13g toe, 10g heel
- BACK WEIGHTS: 4g toe, 4g heel
- SHAFT: Ventus Black 7X
- LENGTH: 45’’
- TIPPING: 1’’
- SWINGWEIGHT: D4
On top of winning the league’s penultimate prize, the win served as a bit of payback for Scheffler who lost a playoff match to Hovland earlier this year at the Travelers Championship.
Like Hovland’s miss on 16, it was Scheffler who lost that match to Hovland after flubbing somewhat of a gimme short putt. It goes to show just how cruel and random the game of golf can be.
Scottie and Spider keep on winning
That reference to Scheffler’s putting is particularly pertinent given another equipment change that has become one of the defining features of his recent run.
His switch to the Spider Tour X has coincided with 18 wins since the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational. Like the move into the Qi4D driver, it came only after months of detailed work, this time examining his putting set-up and how he was seeing the strike.
The results have hardly been discreet. Scheffler has subsequently accumulated victories at The Masters, PGA Championship, Open Championship, TOUR Championship and PLAYERS Championship, alongside a Gold Medal.
The change is a useful reminder that Tour-level equipment fitting is not simply an exercise in adding more technology. Sometimes the problem is identifying whether the player is seeing what he thinks he is seeing. Golf has never been short of ways to complicate a four-foot putt.
Scottie’s Spider Tour X Spec
- HOSEL: L-Neck
- LENGTH: 35.5″
- SIGHT LINE: True Path™ with Full Line
- INSERT: Pure Roll
- LOFT: 2°
- LIE: 70.75°
- GRIP: Golf Pride Green Star Cord
A number of Tour favorites performed admirably over the course of these past four rounds including some stalwarts like Rory McIlroy (4th ; 11-under par) and Adam Scott (T11; 10-under par).
2025 Tour Champion Tommy Fleetwood (T11; 10-under par) maintained the status quo for his 2026 campaign and will have his eyes and hopes on next year for his second career win on tour.
BMW Championship winner Wyndham Clark had to settle for his (T21; 5-under par) finish and Gary Woodland, who looked phenomenal this season, took last place with (29th; 7-over par) after the withdrawal of J.J. Spaun.
Why Scottie plays P·7TW irons
Some of the clubs behind Scheffler’s success have been in place considerably longer.
The story of his P·7TW irons goes back to the final round of the 2020 Masters. Scheffler was using P·730 irons when he was paired with Tiger Woods and spent the round watching Woods hit the irons that had been designed around his own exacting preferences.
Scheffler subsequently tested the P·7TWs back home in Dallas. The attraction was next-level playability without sacrificing the distance he required, and the irons went into the bag.
Since making the switch, Scheffler has won 22 PGA TOUR events, two green jackets, a PGA Championship and The Open Championship while producing records previously associated with Woods himself.
Sometimes imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Sometimes it also produces quite a lot of silverware.
Inside the fit: Scottie’s Qi4D 7-wood
The more intriguing club at the opposite end of Scheffler’s iron set was the Qi4D 7-wood.
As he had done before winning the PGA Championship, Scheffler elected to replace his 3-iron with the higher-lofted fairway wood. This was not simply an attempt to make a difficult long shot easier. The club was built around a very specific number.
Compared with his 3-iron, Scheffler’s 7-wood launches approximately 1.5-2 degrees higher while producing around 1500 additional RPM of spin. The aim was to create a more reliable 240-yard carry than he normally produces with the 3-iron.
Scheffler’s self-dubbed “high one” provided the practical demonstration, launching at 14.9° with 5175 RPM, carrying 245 yards at 160 MPH ball speed.
Twenty of Scheffler’s 22 PGA TOUR wins have come with a TaylorMade fairway wood in the bag. He first put a TaylorMade fairway wood into play at the 2022 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and has continued to rely on one since.
Scottie’s Qi4D 7-Wood Spec
- FINISHED LOFT: 20°
- LIE: 60°
- SHAFT: Ventus Black 9X
- TIPPING: 2’’
- LENGTH: 41 3/8” CUT
- SWINGWEIGHT: D4
- GRIP: Tour Velvet Rib 58
- WRAPS: 6 Double Sided Tapes
Scottie’s Winning WITB
Taken together, the bag shows how little of Scheffler’s equipment set-up is accidental. The driver is there for speed without losing the spin characteristics he wants.
The 7-wood exists to cover a particular carry number. The putter emerged from detailed work on alignment and centred contact. Even the irons trace their origins to watching one of the finest iron players the game has produced.
The winning set-up:
- Qi4D 8.0° driver (Ventus Black 7X)
- Qi10 15.0° 3-wood (Ventus Black 8X)
- Qi4D 21.0° 7-wood (Ventus Black 9X)
- P·7TW 5-PW (Dynamic Gold X100)
- Spider Tour X L-Neck
For all the attention paid to the individual models, the more revealing detail is the reasoning behind them. Scheffler’s bag is not assembled around the newest available option.
Each club has been asked to perform a particular job, usually to a very particular number. At this level, apparently, even the 7-wood requires a job description.
With the PGA Tour’s top performers wrapping up their season, focus now shifts to the DP World Tour and a number of upcoming events that are sure to keep an entertaining season going.
Next up is the Omega European Masters, a grand tournament held in Crans-Montana, Switzerland that will feature some of the biggest names on the DP World Tour and some old familiar faces from days of old. The Omega European Masters starts on Thursday, September 3rd.
