Hero World Challenge second-round leader Scottie Scheffler’s drive looks familiar

History is repeating itself at this week’s Hero World Challenge, where Tiger Woods is the host and No. 1 Scottie Scheffler tops the leaderboard after tweaking his putting grip and carding scores of 67-64 to take a two-shot lead into the weekend.

Presumed PGA TOUR Player of the Year Scheffler didn’t have to adopt a “claw” style putting grip this week, his right hand turned over and pushing the club through impact, after his eight-win season. Nor did Woods have to keep changing his swing throughout his dominant career. But they did, improving from ahead, as it were.

And in both cases, you’d have to say it worked out nicely.

“I didn't really have to make very many long birdie putts on the front nine,” Scheffler said after his second-round, 8-under 64 in which he went out in 7-under 29.

He cooled off with just one birdie on the back and is 13 under through two rounds, two ahead of Akshay Bhatia (66) and 15-time TOUR winner Justin Thomas (67).

Keegan Bradley is four off the lead after signing for a 67.

How easy did Scheffler make it look?

“I’m honestly surprised he only shot 8-under,” said playing partner Thomas.

Scheffler’s round was the best of the day and continued the storyline of the week, his relentless excellence and drive, just as it was so often the story with Woods. The murmurs began Thursday, when Scheffler flipped that right hand around and you could almost hear the gasps emanating from the Bahamas, across the Atlantic Ocean, and into living rooms everywhere:

Wait, Scottie is changing it up? Why would he do that?

Because the great ones do. Going into the summer of his epic, nine-victory (including three majors) season in 2000, Woods also bucked convention: He said was about to hit another gear. “Every area of my game can get better,” he said, no doubt eliciting double-takes after he’d just dusted Ernie Els by five shots at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday.

But Woods was right. He was about to win the U.S. Open by 15 shots.

Where might Scheffler be headed? He is coming off a seven-win season on the PGA TOUR, those victories including his second Masters, second PLAYERS Championship, four Signature Events, the TOUR Championship, and the FedExCup. He also won Olympic gold in Paris. Eight wins – a very good career for most anyone else.

Scheffler’s first full year with putting coach Phil Kenyon paid dividends as he went from 161st in Strokes Gained: Putting to 76th, gaining nearly .1 strokes on the field. That isn’t much but still means the putter helped him more than it hurt him. Naturally, he decided to change it up yet again, working with Kenyon to develop a claw grip and deploying it to great effect through 36 holes at the Hero World Challenge.

“I'm always looking for ways to improve,” Scheffler said after Round 1, “and I felt like this was something that we had looked at last year when Phil and I first started working together … it was something that we had just said let's table that for the end of the season, take a look at it.”

Scheffler is fifth in Strokes Gained: Putting, gaining a shot and a half on the field, at Albany Golf Club. Although he is not the only one trying something new – Thomas has used a 46-inch driver; Bhatia and Ludvig Åberg (70, 7-under) are trying new drivers; Wyndham Clark (70, 1 under) is debuting new custom irons – his determination to keep getting better is recalling Woods in his prime.

Although much improved on the greens this season, Scheffler knew that his stats plummeted from inside 10 feet, where he ranked 139th. Hence the claw. Sticking with his conventional grip for long putts, he is switching it up from short to mid-range.

“The closer I get to the hole,” he said, “kind of that inside-15-foot range, I think that’s where I’m seeing a lot of the benefits of it.”

Already the best, Scheffler seems to be making himself better before our eyes. Can he hit another gear? It was a scary prospect with Woods; it’s no less scary now.