What Scottie Scheffler achieved in 2024 is going to be remembered for a long time, with the world number one cementing his spot as the best player on the planet over the course of the season.
Scottie Scheffler was always going to be one to watch in 2024. His rise has been meteoric, with the 28-year-old still awaiting his first PGA Tour win when he was handed a captain’s pick for the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits.
But few could have imagined what was to come over the last 12 months. Scheffler has not only won eight times worldwide, and helped USA win the Presidents Cup, but he has clinched a number of the biggest events on tour.
Of course, the highlight probably was The Masters, but he also won an Olympic gold medal, The Tour Championship, four signature events, and he became the first player to win The Players Championship in back to back years. It really feels as if Scheffler could put his feet up in 2025 and still end the year as the world number one.
How Scottie Scheffler surpassed all expectations
Clearly, many would have expected Scheffler to end the year at the top of the mountain, but few could have envisaged just how dominant he would prove to be – as highlighted by Kyle Porter’s call on The First Cut ahead of 2024 on a podcast based around bold predictions for the season.
“Scottie Scheffler wins five times next year,” he said.
“How many guys have won five times in the last 10 years? JT in 2017, Spieth in 2015, has anybody else done it? Maybe DJ in 2016? Five’s a lot, it’s a lot.
“I don’t think anybody’s done it since 2017, Rahm had four this year. It’s hard to do. So I think Scottie Scheffler, the numbers, I feel like it was very difficult to convey to just the regular golf fan, like my dad, how good Scheffler was in 2023. He was a stroke better than the second best tee to green guy, who was Cantlay, a stroke.”
Status as an all-time great may only be a year away
Scheffler’s performance in 2024 makes his two wins in 2023 look relatively average. Ultimately, he has removed any shred of doubt over who had the better year between himself and Xander Schauffele – and Schauffele won two major titles.
It is an unbelievable achievement which is unlikely to be replicated again for a very long time. Scheffler enjoyed the kind of dominance which was potentially last seen when Tiger Woods was in and around his prime.
Maintaining that over several years is another challenge altogether. Billy Horschel believes that Scheffler may have to settle for three or four wins next year. And it says so much that even that feels like a step down for him.
Scheffler is arguably now potentially just one year away from cementing himself as an all-time great.
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