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OVERVIEW In a game increasingly dominated by youth, 36-year-old Francesco Molinari had a career-changing year in 2018. He did it by improving his play with both the longest and shortest clubs in the bag. He took a page out of the youngsters’ playbook by making distance a priority and addressed his longtime struggles with the putter. After going winless in his first 120 PGA TOUR starts, he won twice in a three-tournament stretch this summer. He picked up his first PGA TOUR win at the Quicken Loans National, shooting a final-round 62 to win by eight. Then he stared down Tiger Woods to win The Open Championship at Carnoustie. Molinari sandwiched a runner-up at the John Deere Classic between those victories. He was 48 under in those 12 rounds, including six rounds of 65 or lower. He also qualified for his first TOUR Championship with a career-best FedExCup finish (17th). And, after going winless in his first two Ryder Cups, he led Europe to victory at Le Golf National, becoming the first player to win a major and go 5-0 in the Ryder Cup in the same season. “This year, it’s been incredible,â€� he said. That may be an understatement. — By Sean Martin Click here to see who else made the Top 30 list. BY THE NUMBERS FEDEXCUP UPDATE Current 2018-19 position: 173rd Playoff appearances: 4 TOUR Championship appearances: 2 Best FedExCup result: 17th in the 2017-18 season SHOTLINK FUN FACT Francesco Molinari is one of five first-time winners since the 2013-14 season to win multiple times in the same year as his breakthrough PGA TOUR win. INSIDER INSIGHTS PGATOUR.COM’s Insiders offer their expert views on what to expect from Francesco Molinari in 2019. TOUR INSIDER: Molinari’s work with putting instructor Phil Kenyon undoubtedly paid dividends in 2018. But so did a 20-yard distance gain over the past three seasons, including a 10-yard gain since 2017. And he was able to do it with only a small loss in accuracy. Compared to 2015, Molinari is gaining nearly two additional strokes per event with his tee shots. He gained distance with both changes to his swing and more trips to the gym. “I was more of a couch guy a couple years ago,â€� he joked. – By Sean Martin FANTASY INSIDER: It’d be unfair to predict the kind of success that he enjoyed worldwide in the last six months, but it’s still a reminder of what’s possible when we position expectations properly. For dual-tour threats like the 36-year-old Italian, the customary advice is to invest lightly and surround with busier talent based in the U.S. It provides both insurance for the worst of times and an injection for the best of times. No doubt, his encore will include a few blue notes, but he already was a standard on every set list because of his world-class ball-striking. It’s a skill that rarely strikes the wrong chord. — By Rob Bolton EQUIPMENT INSIDER: Molinari was part of the Nike staff left without an equipment deal when the company left the hard goods industry, and he’s since switched into mostly TaylorMade clubs. He’s currently using a TaylorMade M4 driver, an M3 fairway wood, P-790 driving irons (2 and 4), P-750 irons (5-PW), and Milled Grind wedges. He fills out his bag with a custom Bettinardi Dass BB-0 putter, stamped with a skull in the cavity that has green and red eyes to represent his pride of the Italian flag, and green and red stampings on the back bumpers. — By Andrew Tursky STYLE INSIDER: While many Nike athletes favor the brand’s sporty looks, Molinari gravitates towards the classic designs in Nike’s collection. Expect the reigning Open champ to stick with a neutral palette of colors with the occasional splash of intense pastels in 2019. — By Greg Monteforte

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Scottie Scheffler recorded his first PGA TOUR victory Sunday at the WM Phoenix Open following a three-hole playoff against reigning FedExCup champion Patrick Cantlay. While the win should mostly be attributed to years of hard work, perseverance and raw talent, at least a sliver of credit must go to a putter change he made the week of the event. Scheffler hasn’t been one to change putters much throughout his career thus far, mostly opting for a Scotty Cameron Tour Rat 1 prototype putter. Heading into 2022, though, he wanted a slightly different look Back in December 2021, Scheffler took a trip to the famous Scotty Cameron Putter Studio in California to work with Scotty Cameron Tour Rep Brad Cloke. Before the trip to the studio, Scheffler had been experimenting with a Scotty Cameron Newport 2 Timeless putter at home — for those who may not know, Scotty Cameron’s Newport has a bit rounder and softer edges than its Newport 2 style. While Scheffler liked the slightly different look of his Newport 2 Timeless putter at home, he wanted to get something more dialed in. And there’s no better place to do it than Scotty’s studio, where the fitters can make custom adjustments to weighting, profile, look and materials. “He just wanted to switch things up a little bit and give himself a slightly different look heading into 2022,” Cloke said in a Titleist press release. “Prior to visiting us in the studio, he’d been messing around with an older Newport 2 Timeless he had at home. He’d added bunch of lead tape to the sole to try and get it to a similar swingweight as his Super Rat. He really liked the profile but the feel wasn’t exactly where he wanted it, so we went to work on building him a new setup with adjustable weighting.” Of course, custom putter builds don’t just happen overnight. Scheffler had to wait for his new putter to get made and delivered from the studio. So, for the first few events of 2022, Scheffler used the Newport 2 Timeless putter that he’d been experimenting with. His new Scotty Cameron Special Select Timeless Tourtype GSS prototype finally showed up the week prior to the WM Phoenix Open. It is 36.25 inches long and it has two 25-gram weights in the sole to get the weighting right for Scheffler’s stroke and feel preferences. The putter went right into play, and, obviously, it worked. Scheffler ranked second for the week in Stroked Gained: Putting (+6.49) and he made 44.7% of his birdie attempts. Illustrating how slim the margins are on the PGA TOUR, the new club helped Scheffler hole a couple crucial putts that helped him just make the cut at TPC Scottsdale. Scheffler advanced to the weekend with just a stroke to spare, thanks in part to a 35-foot birdie putt he made on his second-to-last hole Friday. “I kept telling (caddie Ted Scott) on Thursday and Friday I was scoring really poorly. I was playing fantastic golf, my swing felt great, short game felt good, putting felt good, everything felt really good and I was only 3 under,” Scheffler said in his pre-tournament press conference for this week’s Genesis Invitational. “I was really fighting the cut line on Friday afternoon. I had to make like a 6- or 7-footer on 7 for par to stay at 2 under, which was the cut line. Then I ended up making like a 40-footer for birdie on 8 to get to 3 under, and got up and down on 9 because I thought the cut line was going to be at 3 under.” Scheffler shot up the leaderboard with weekend rounds of 62-67 to claim his first TOUR title. Thanks to Cloke and his fitting efforts, Scheffler was able to find the right look, and Scheffler was able to capture his first career victory. Sometimes it’s the little things that can push golfers over that performance barrier. In terms of other putter changes, Adam Scott also switched putters recently. More on that change here.

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