Scottie Scheffler raised plenty of eyebrows ahead of the 2026 Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill when revealing that he’d put a new driver in the bag.
After two trophy-laden seasons using the TaylorMade Qi10, Scheffler switched to TaylorMade’s new Qi4D driver at Arnie’s event in Florida.
It’s been a popular change among the company’s other elite players with Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Collin Morikawa all adopting the Qi4D.
So, from that perspective, it wasn’t a surprise to see Scheffler follow suit.
While the move was widely reported, little has been said on how Scheffler actually performed with the new big stick.
He did give a heads up after his first-round 70 at Bay Hill though.
“I feel like what we have seen is more consistent spin numbers. So that will help it be a little bit more accurate off the tee,” he said.
“Directionally, I struggled a little bit with it at the start of the year, but I got to what I thought was a really good spot last week, and I liked what I saw today.”
But what did the numbers say?
Strokes Gained: Off The Tee is the leading measure of driver prowess and this is how Scheffler ranked each day and over the whole tournament.
Round 1: 70 – Off The Tee Rank: 18th
Round 2: 71 – Off The Tee Rank: 8th
Round 3: 72 – Off The Tee Rank: 33rd
Round 4: 73 – Off The Tee Rank: 33rd
Overall finish: 27th – Off The Tee Rank: 19th
In summary, his driving was strong pre-cut but fell back somewhat on the weekend.
So how does that compare to his season-long ranking and his OTT stats for the previous two campaigns?
2026: Off The Tee Rank: 2nd
2025: Off The Tee Rank: 2nd
2024: Off The Tee Rank: 2nd
Scheffler is one of the world’s very best drivers and before the switch he ranked 2nd for Off The Tee, just as he had done the previous two years.
That 19th place ranking kept him second although pulled his average strokes gained numbers down a fraction.
Here’s what he said himself after finishing his week in 24th spot – 13 shots behind the winner.
Asked specifically about his new driver, the World No.1 responded: “Yeah, I feel like I saw some good things out of it. We’ll see kind of going forward where I’ll be at. But overall, I definitely saw some good things from it this week.”
But when summarising his final-round 73, Scheffler also added: “I wish I could have drove it a little better.”
The numbers and his quotes are hardly a ringing endorsement and may reflect some uncertainty.
But, ironically, that uncertainty should be focused on his iron play.
Scheffler has ranked 1st for Strokes Gained: Approach in each of the last three seasons. For the last two he was a mile clear in that category.
This season Scheffler is way down in 88th for Approach.
As a result, his incredible run of top 10s which had lasted almost a full year has ended via finishes of 12th at the Genesis and 24th at Bay Hill in his last two starts.
Scheffler, it appears, is searching for something and perhaps the driver switch is symptomatic of that.
But, on the evidence so far, the driver isn’t the problem. Don’t be surprised if he switches back.
Read next: Why McIlroy, Scheffler and DeChambeau use such low-loft drivers
The post What the Bay Hill numbers really reveal about Scheffler’s driver switch appeared first on Golf365.
Article Link: Scottie Scheffler’s new TaylorMade Qi4D Driver: Surprise stats found