The Five: New Year's resolutions for top TOUR players

For the first time in more than a decade, the goal-setting timeline of the general public and PGA TOUR has aligned.

With the return to the calendar year PGA TOUR schedule, TOUR pros are setting goals for the new year just like the rest of us. So, as the Opening Drive kicks off at The Sentry in Kapalua, Hawaii, it feels fitting to prescribe New Year’s resolutions for some of the TOUR’s top players.

That’s the subject of the Five this week. What changes could spark even better seasons for some of the world’s best? Like any good New Year’s resolutions list, some are more attainable than others. The fun will be finding which will hit and which may end up back on a TOUR player’s list heading into 2025.

Scottie Scheffler: Find consistency on the greens

In all likelihood, Scheffler won’t replicate the ball-striking season he amassed in 2023. Statistically, his tee-to-green performance was the second-best in PGA TOUR history, trailing only Tiger Woods in 2006. He earned the Jack Nicklaus Player of the Year honors because of that dominance.

Yet it’s possible 2024 could be a more successful season for Scheffler. And it has everything to do with his putter.

Scheffler’s woes on the greens are well documented. He ranked 161st in Strokes Gained: Putting last season. He carded 10 top-10s in which he lost strokes to the field on the greens. At the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, Scheffler had the second-best ball striking performance of anyone in the last 20 years on the PGA TOUR, gaining 20.7 strokes over the field from tee-to-green. Yet he finished one shot behind winner Viktor Hovland. Why? He lost 8.5 shots to the field putting. He finished third at the Charles Schwab Challenge despite ranking 71st of 72 players in putting. A similar story played out at the AT&T Byron Nelson, the Masters and the Genesis Scottish Open.

With just average putting in 2023, Scheffler’s win total is likely much higher than two.

There are signs that average, or better, could be on the horizon. Scheffler won the Hero World Challenge and finished sixth in putting. He was second in the field entering the final round and took a more conservative putting approach as he won by a comfortable three-stroke margin.

It coincided with changes to equipment, coaching and form. Scheffler began working with highly respected putting coach Phil Kenyon ahead of the Ryder Cup and spoke glowingly of Kenyon’s influence following his victory.

“I'm much more clear in what I need to be working on,” Scheffler said.

The two worked on striking the right balance of athleticism. Don’t be too robotic, but make sure you have sound mechanics. Focus on your setup, but don’t try to be perfect. It translated at the Hero World Challenge, Scheffler’s first stroke-play event since bringing Kenyon onboard. He also switched from his Scotty Cameron blade to a blade from Logan Olson, a relatively unknown bespoke putter manufacturer.

It’s a small sample, but it provided a reminder of Scheffler’s domination when he is comfortable on the greens. Much more could be in store if he can bottle that feeling up and take it into 2024.

Justin Thomas: Rekindle elite iron play

Thomas is a top-10 golfer in the world when he’s a top-10 approach player. He’s accomplished the latter feat in seven of his nine years on the PGA TOUR. The two years he failed to reach that mark – 2015 and 2023 – are the only two years he missed the TOUR Championship.

As Thomas embarks on what he hopes is a resurgent 2024 season, correcting the miscues in his approach play is paramount, even if the stats suggest there are bigger deficiencies.

Thomas ranked 35th in SG: Approach last season, a drop from eighth in 2022, third in 2021 and first in 2020. However, he still gained more shots on approach than off-the-tee and on the greens. He ranked 65th in driving and T135th in putting.

But Thomas is comfortable and more than capable of overcoming those deficiencies. He’s done it before. He ranked outside the top 100 in putting between 2019 and 2021, when he won five times, including THE PLAYERS Championship and the PGA Championship. In 2021, his play off the tee was comparably mediocre to last year, yet he notched 15 top 25s, his most in the previous five seasons.

The chink that Thomas can’t afford in his armor lies with the approach play. He missed more cuts (six) in 2023 than any season since 2016. He had a career-low four top-10s and no top-two finishes for the first time since 2015.

The issues were persistent throughout the bag.

Jordan Spieth: Make it as easy as possible

As Spieth prepared for the Hero World Challenge in December, he was asked to reflect on attending the tournament for the first time 10 years ago. He was a different person back then, a different player, too. There were signs he would turn into a multi-time major winner and perennial PGA TOUR star, but it wasn’t there yet.

Spieth spoke of the two-week stretch in which he played in Australia and then made the cross-country trek to play the Hero World Challenge, which he then contested at Isleworth Golf and Country Club in Florida. He talked about the effortlessness that he played and prepared with. At that point, he had won just once, yet everything seemed more straightforward to grasp.

The golf he played those two weeks was “up there as maybe the best golf I've played in my life,” Spieth said. “I've yet to match the way it felt that week.”

“it seemed … easy then,” he said.

It’s a reality most golfers meet as they age. The fearlessness and the naivete of their younger selves are part of what made them so good. It’s no surprise Spieth feels that way. He’s had more jubilation and heartbreak in his decade as a pro than most do in their entire career.

But his play style isn’t making it easy either. The innocence he played with as a 21-year-old pro might be gone, but he can work on the erraticism that he displayed in 2023.

Spieth ranked 137th in driving accuracy percentage and 175th in greens in regulation percentage. Despite that, he still gained strokes tee-to-green. But it forced the typical Spieth heroics more often than he’d like. Instead of birdies, he was fighting for par. He ranked 13th in one-putt percentage but 99th in birdie average.

It’s a challenging way to consistently play good golf, especially as the competition grows fiercer with the Signature Events schedule in 2024. It will require a precision that Spieth has seldom shown in the last five years. But after finally correcting the wrist issues that have plagued him since 2018, Spieth is confident that more consistency is close.

“I feel really optimistic about being able to get myself into position as often as I feel that I should and close out more and more tournaments,” he said.

Viktor Hovland: Correct the lag-putting issues

Hovland enters the 2024 PGA TOUR season with expectations he has not felt before. Gone are the days of him being named a sleeper or part of the next breakout stars. His breakout happened in 2023. That’s what three wins, including the final two FedExCup Playoffs events, will do to you.

Now, he’s expected to replicate it and more.

It’s difficult to find holes in his game. “He’s just one of those who just doesn’t have anywhere you can poke at,” Max Homa told PGATOUR.com recently. Though, in the spirit of New Year's resolutions, you must try.

And per Edoardo Molinari, Hovland’s data analyst, there is a particular part of Hovland’s game that he hopes to refine in the new year: lag putting.

As most of his game improved last season, Hovland’s lag putting dipped. He ranked 174th from 20-25 feet and 126th from outside 25 feet. That contributed to a middling three-putt avoidance percentage and too many squandered opportunities.

Molinari also found Hovland struggled on putts with a particular break, though he declined to delve into specifics.

“Viktor’s long game has always been elite and with the new short game it is going to be a very difficult player to beat going forward,” Molinari said.

He already is.

Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay: Return to the winner’s circle

Xander Schauffele didn’t miss a cut and carded a career-high 11 top 10s. Patrick Cantlay never fell outside the top five of the Official World Golf Ranking. Yet, when either player talks about their 2022-2023 season, there’s a tinge of regret in their voice.

It’s the maddening reality for pro golfers, who accept they’ll leave unhappy most weeks. Winning two or three times a year is considered remarkable. But that’s what Schauffele and Cantlay expect to do. So, when they look back on a winless year, it’s hard for them to hide that disappointment.

“It's been a weird year,” Schauffele said at the TOUR Championship last August. “Obviously, yeah, without a win it definitely feels a bit weirder.”

It also makes their resolutions simple: win in 2024.