ATLANTA – Ever since Tiger Woods said “Hello, world” in 1996, any historical context has become increasingly difficult. Not only are comparisons to Woods blatantly unfair but they almost always fall flat.
There have been outliers. Jordan Spieth in 2015 when he won five times including the Masters and U.S. Open, along with top-5 finishes at the year’s other two Grand Slam stops, was special. Rory McIlroy in 2012 with four Tour tilts, a major (PGA Championship) and two of that season’s four post-season stops was also impressive.
But as spectacular as those campaigns were, neither player was able to sustain that Tiger-like performance. McIlroy went winless on Tour in ’13 and Spieth won a total of five times over his next five years following that ’15 season.
If comparisons to Woods are zero-sum games it is, to be fair, the only benchmark for what Scottie Scheffler accomplished this season.
Scheffler’s season swansong at the Tour Championship, a four-stroke romp that’s slightly misleading given the “silly” (his word) starting-strokes format and how close the race for the circuit’s $25 million payday was midway through Sunday’s final round, was his seventh victory of the season. The last player to win seven times on Tour in a single season was Woods in 2007.
In fact, only Woods (’07, ’06, ’00 and 1999) and Vijay Singh (2004) have won seven or more events on Tour since 1983. And only Woods spent more time in his career at No. 1 in the FedExCup standings (85) than Scheffler (50).
Then there’s the historical marks that Woods didn’t achieve, including Scheffler becoming the first player to win a major, The Players and the FedExCup in the same season. Scheffler also set a new mark for earnings with an impressive $62 million in total compensation, including his (unofficial) $25 million FedExCup and $8 million Comcast Business Tour Top 10 bonuses. It’s worth noting amid professional golf’s arm race that Scheffler’s total on-course income, including those two well-earned bonuses, is more than any NFL quarterback will make this season in average base salary.
But it’s Scheffler’s sustained brilliance and his unrivaled consistency that puts him alongside Woods. Over the last three seasons he’s won 13 times starting with his breakthrough Tour victory at the 2022 WM Phoenix Open.
“His consistency, his attitude, I feel like he just sort of brings the same demeanor to the course every single day, no matter what position on the leaderboard he’s in,” McIlroy said of Scheffler. “He’s just amazing to watch, the way he manages himself around the golf course. Yeah, we’ll look back on 2024 and it’s obviously one of the best individual years that a player has had for a long time.”
That demeanor was tested midway through the final round at East Lake with a tee shot at No. 7 that bounced just short of the out-of-bounds marker (bogey) and a shanked shot from the bunker at No. 8 (bogey) that cut his once commanding lead over Collin Morikawa to just two strokes. Yet he never looked flustered or overwhelmed.
He followed those snafus with three consecutive birdies and an eagle at the 14th hole that felt like a statement, an exclamation point on a season that’s been equal parts sublime and surreal.
“I was definitely frustrated. I’ve been playing really solid golf the rest of the week. I just happened to have two bad holes in a row, basically,” said Scheffler, who closed with a 67 for a 30-under total that included (insert asterisk) his 10-under starting-strokes advantage. “[Caddie Ted Scott] did a good job of reminding me that we’re still in control of the tournament, I’m still playing great, just get out and get back to work, basically, is the speech he kind gave me, is just get back to work, and that’s what we did.”
Every step of Scheffler’s climb to dominance, it’s been Woods who has been the standard, with apologies to Scheffler’s contemporizes. Even the metrics that speak to the art of greatness are dominated by Woods, first and foremost, and then Scheffler. Last year, Scheffler’s strokes gained: tee to green total (2.614) was second only to Woods’ 2006 season (2.982). And this year, Scheffler’s 2.456 strokes gained: tee to green mark is nearly a full shot better than second place (Xander Schauffele).
“I think that’s fair. I think all the stats back that up. I think that the results back it up,” said Adam Scott when asked if he’d compare Scheffler’s dominance to Woods’. “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. 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.”
Although Woods’ greatest moments are imprinted in the fabric of his career — think the chip-in at No. 16 during the 2005 Masters or the 12-footer on the 72nd hole to force a playoff at the 2008 U.S. Open — most of his 82 PGA Tour victories were won with a brand of golf that Stewart Cink once called “prevent defense.” Scheffler’s game is equally machine-like.
While there has been no shortage of highlight moments in Scheffler’s career — his bounce-back birdies starting at No. 9 Sunday at East Lake moving onto that list — his brand of golf feels more relentless than flashy.
“I think the one thing I’ve always admired about Scottie is the amount of bogey-free rounds he shoots,” McIlroy said. “If you just go back over the last two, three years and you look at how many rounds he shoots that he’ll shoot like 4 under par, no bogeys, doesn’t look spectacular at all, but it’s just so solid, doesn’t really put himself out of position. When you don’t make a ton of bogeys, the field has got to do something really special to keep up.”
There are even similarities with how the two compartmentalize off-course distractions, but then Scheffler hasn’t had nearly as much experience with crisis management as Woods. Although the felony charge for assaulting a police officer on Day 2 at this year’s PGA Championship was ultimately dropped, Scheffler’s second-round 66 after spending the morning in a cell and his ultimate tie for eighth at Valhalla, is a testament to his resilience.
At 28, Scheffler still has plenty of ground to cover if he’s going to truly rival Woods’ decades of dominance and even after three stellar seasons there will be those who scoff at any comparisons between the two. Perhaps it’s too soon or too small of a sample size. Or perhaps we’re seeing the beginning of something truly special.
