Brandel Chamblee states his argument about Scottie Scheffler and Tiger Woods before the Tour Championship starts

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Scottie Scheffler is going to be the overwhelming favourite to win the Tour Championship this week after another amazing season for the world number one.

The golfing world should have known what was on the way when Scottie Scheffler started the season with a number of decent results considering that he had spent time on the sidelines with a hand injury at the turn of the year.

Scheffler has been outstanding in recent months. He has won five times in his last 10 starts, including at two majors. Meanwhile, you would have to go back to the 2024 BMW Championship for the last time Scheffler finished outside the top 30 in any event.

And any hope for his rivals that Scheffler would coast through the FedEx Cup playoffs has already been dashed. The 29-year-old finished tied for third at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, while he then won the BMW Championship.

How Scottie Scheffler compares with Tiger Woods ahead of the Tour Championship

It was Scheffler who won the FedEx Cup last year – though he benefitted from the staggered starting strokes. And it is hard to see anyone but him winning in the coming days.

In fact, speaking on The Favorite Chamblee, Brandel Chamblee admitted that this version of Scheffler is about as impressive a player as the season finale has ever seen.

“I have never seen a great player miss so many short putts but on the other hand his putting has massively improved this year,” he said.

“I will make the argument that there has never been a more complete player tee it up at the Tour Championship and that includes Tiger Woods.

“The Tour Championship at East Lake started in 2004, so when you go back to 2004, Tiger Woods led in strokes gained total and in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 but he was never in the four main categories – off the tee, approach, around the green and putting – at no point was he or any other player who has ever gone to the Tour Championship, been in the top 20 in every single one of those statistically categories.

“In 2005 he was 128th in strokes gained around the green going into the week, in 2006 he was 74th in strokes gained around the greens, in 2007 he was 80th in strokes gained around the green. We go to 2009 and he was 41st in strokes gained off the tee.

“It’s not that he was awful at these, but you are looking at Scottie Scheffler who is first in strokes gained off the tee, in that particular period of 2004, Tiger drove it long and straight in 1999, 2000 and 2001 and 2002 but you wouldn’t call him long and straight thereafter.

“Scheffler is also first in strokes gained approach, 18th in strokes gained around the green, he is 16th in strokes gained putting.

“As a matter of fact, if you go and put together strokes gained ball striking, in that field of 30 players, nobody comes close to that.

“He is by miles the best at strokes gained ball striking. And if you add up strokes gained around the green and putting, there is only one player better than Scottie Scheffler, that’s Harry Hall.

“Scheffler is second. So you are talking about someone who goes in there and is the strongest player through the bag that has ever stepped foot at East Lake for the Tour Championship and that does include Tiger Woods.”

Scottie Scheffler’s 2025 stats vs Tiger Woods in 2018

Obviously, Woods was not the same player when he won the 2018 Tour Championship. There was much more of an awareness that any victories he enjoyed at that stage of his career had to be savoured.

But Woods won The Masters the following year. So he was still performing at a world-class level when he had thousands of fans following him on the final fairway at East Lake.

There were definitely glimpses of Woods at something like his best that season. He was inside the top five for strokes gained approach. But he was also well down the list off the tee.

Scheffler, meanwhile, is setting the standard in almost every category right now.

It is so impressive that it appears that the only question mark left hanging over Scheffler is whether he can sustain his dominance over a much longer period – as there just does not appear to be a single glaring weakness in his game.