[PHOTO: Gregory Shamus]
It’s been said that all comparisons are odious, so venturing down the road to assessing whether or not Scottie Scheffler’s dominating PGA Tour season is reminiscent of some of the best years of Tiger Woods seems rather, well, questionable for passing the smell test.
Scheffler won the Tour Championship and a $US25 million bonus as FedEx Cup champion yesterday for his seventh PGA Tour win of the season – and eighth overall counting his Olympic gold medal – to put an exclamation mark (or several of them) on a truly special run that included his second Masters title and the first successful defence of the Players Championship in the history of the event. He led the FedEx Cup standings for the final 25 weeks after his first win of the year at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in early March. His official earnings came up just short of $US30 million.
What’s more, his lead in the Official World Golf Ranking is not even close to Woods’ record, but it’s still among the biggest in history.
Winner of 13 tour titles in the past three years and ranking first in 40 statistical categories in 2024, Scheffler, 28, is by every measure the game’s finest talent and well on his way to taking a place among the best of all-time, if he can maintain his current level of excellence. There is no evidence to believe he can’t.
Is it unreasonable to compare him to Tiger Woods? The only player in the field last week at East Lake Golf Club who has competed against Woods in his prime for a significant number of years, Adam Scott, doesn’t think so. The Queenslander unequivocally sees similarities between Woods and Scheffler.
“Yeah, I think that’s fair,” said Scott, 44, when asked about Scheffler’s “Tiger-esque” type season. “I think all the stats back that up. I think that the results back it up. It’s been pretty incredible, from really starting at Bay Hill, I guess.
“I think it is on par with those great years of Tiger’s,” the 2013 Masters winner added. “I think it’s very hard today for anyone to separate themselves as much as Scottie has. I don’t think we’ve seen that in a long time. I think it’s harder to do it today.”
Interestingly, Scott admits that even after his 20-plus years as a pro and 14 PGA Tour titles, he has been inclined to pick Scheffler’s brain for insights into factors that contribute to his success. “I ask him every day,” Scott said.
Every day?
“Yeah, I do. I’m observing all the time everything he does,” Scott, now ranked 18th in the world, continued. “I switched to his golf ball this year. I did a bunch of stuff just to see what’s going on. But I didn’t find it.”
Well, yeah, greatness doesn’t just come out of a bottle.
Scott carded a final-round four-under 67 at East Lake Golf Club and tied for fourth in the 30-man field. He ended up 11 shots behind Scheffler at 19-under-par, but his actual aggregate score of 268 only trailed the FedEx Cup champion by four shots. He is preparing for his 11th appearance for the International team in the Presidents Cup later this month at Royal Montreal in Canada.
He is hopeful that the International team, led by Mike Weir, can win for the first time since 1998.
“I think our team is deeper than we’ve seen for a while, I mean, as far as world ranking goes,” Scott said. “Not that that’s the be all and end all, but it’s something. Usually our bottom players drift out a little in the world ranking, and it’s a lot tighter this year. I feel like we’re putting together a formidable side, and 18-hole matchplay and some momentum, and we can get right in it.”
The good news is that Scottie Scheffler, while really good, can only win one match at a time.
