Cameron Young leads Hero; new driver for Justin Thomas; New grip for Scottie Scheffler

NASSAU, Bahamas – Scottie Scheffler brought a new putting grip to the Hero World Challenge and felt improved enough to be pleased with the result: a 5-under 67 that left him three shots behind Cameron Young on Thursday.

Playing for the first time since the BMW Championship more than three months ago, Young found great success on and around the greens at Albany Golf Club, chipping beautifully and holing four birdie putts from 15 feet or longer for his 64.

In his first competition since giving birth to his daughter a few weeks ago, he led Justin Thomas by two shots. Toward the end of his round, Thomas racked up four birdies in a row and was a fraction of an inch away with a fifth.

The big surprise was Scheffler, the No. 1 golfer, who looked as good as he had all year with eight wins, including an Olympic gold medal. His iron game is unparalleled. His putting has prevented him from making more or bigger wins at times. He decided to try a claw putting grip from about 20 feet away or closer – the putter resting between his right thumb and fingers, his left index finger pointing down the shaft.

“I’m always looking for ways to improve,” Scheffler said.

Scheffler began working with renowned putting instructor Phil Kenyon last year, and he says Kenyon mentioned the alternate putting grip at the time.

“But it was really our first collaboration and it’s something that’s different than what I’ve done in the past,” Scheffler said. “This year I’ve been thinking about it from time to time and we had just said we should plan it for the end of the season and take a look at it.

“I thought this was a good week to try things out.”

The world number 1 implemented the claw grip for shorter putts in round 1 of the Hero World Challenge.

He opened with a wedge to 2 feet and missed a 7-foot birdie putt on the par-5 third. But he holed a birdie from about the same distance on the next par-5 No. 6 and holed a sliding 6-footer on the ninth to save par.

His longest putt was on his final hole, from 12 feet for a final birdie.

“I really enjoyed the feeling,” he said. “I felt like my stroke was improving.”

Young, considered the best active player without a PGA Tour victory, sees this holiday tournament as the start of a new season. He worked on getting stronger and got back to the basics of his powerful golf swing.

And that day he impressed with his short game. On an ideal day in the Bahamas, he only struggled to make par twice and continued to pile up birdies in his bogey-free round.

“The wind wasn’t blowing much, so it was relatively stress-free,” Young said.

Patrick Cantlay played alongside Scheffler for the first time since the Presidents Cup and was also 67 along with Ludvig Åberg, Akshay Bhatia and Sahith Theegala.

Thomas also took this opportunity to experiment a bit against a 20-man field. He used a 46-inch driver at home — just over an inch longer than his regular driver — to get more speed. On a day with little wind, on a golf course with some space off the tee, he decided to put it into play.

“Since it’s just a little longer, I just have to get the club out in front of me and get a little better grip on it,” Thomas said. “I’ve been really pushing myself on the back side, so it was nice to try something different and make it work a little better on the back side.”

Thomas said the longer driver gives him 2 to 3 mph ball speed and 10 additional yards in the air.

“It’s very specific to courses, but we tried it,” he said.

Conditions were so easy that only four players in the field failed to break par, with Jason Day bringing up the rear with a 75.