Scottie Scheffler has left so many people scratching their heads over the past four years, with the world number one enjoying a level of dominance the game has potentially not seen since Tiger Woods.
Since the start of the 2022 PGA Tour season, Scottie Scheffler has won 20 times worldwide. That includes four major titles and an Olympic gold medal.
His smallest margin of victory in the majors is three shots. Brandel Chamblee put Scheffler ahead of Rory McIlroy in his prime following The Open Championship this past week, while it has been suggested that Scheffler is playing at a higher level than Tiger Woods.
What is remarkable about Scheffler is how easy he makes everything look. As Jordan Spieth noted, Scheffler is not trying to change the game with his approach. He does not want to be a superstar.
What Peter Finch noticed about Scottie Scheffler on the range during The Open Championship
And it seems that it is quite a bizarre experience watching Scheffler up close while he is practicing on the driving range.
Speaking on The Rough Cut Golf Podcast, Peter Finch noted that he was not particularly impressed by Scheffler as he prepared for his rounds at Royal Portrush – though he was slightly better than he had been the previous year.
“I knew Scottie was going to be a problem, because when I watched him at Troon on the range, he was hitting it pants,” he said.
“And this time – I want to make sure I qualify this so people don’t think it’s stupid, so Scottie on the range when he’s hitting it, he’s fine. He’s absolutely fine. But if you went past and you didn’t know who he was, the way he hits it and he was at your local golf club, you’d be like, ‘oh, he’s a good low handicapper’. But I think by his own admission, the driving range is not where he wants to be. He wants to be out on the golf course, shaping shots and being creative. It’s a weird one. If you put him and Rory next to each other on the range, there’s no comparison.”
The one-time major champion Scottie Scheffler has now been likened to
Scheffler appears to be one of those players who would rather finish second and doing all the right things than win an event one week by moving away from his processes.
Ultimately, Scheffler has put the foundations in place which have allowed him to dominate for the best part of four years now. And one of those foundations is tremendous club face control.
Interestingly, speaking on Five Clubs this week, Brendon de Jonge compared Scheffler’s skill in that area with a one-time major champion.
“He’s not slowing down anytime soon, I know that. It’s unbelievable. All the adjectives you used to describe his golf game right now, the clinical efficiency, the inevitability of him hitting good golf shots, and just the ability to do exactly as he should over and over.
“I was fortunate enough to walk with him on Saturday in that third round and I got a close up a few times watching him hit some shots. The control of the club face as we get a little bit more technical, from the last foot in the backswing to the last foot in the through swing is just absolutely unbelievable. The only person who I could liken it to is a Jim Furyk.
“Jim Furyk had that kind of control. But Scottie Scheffler has the ability to move his ball speed up to over 180 mph and he’s a much better putter than Jim Furyk, so it’s absolutely fantastic watching this guy plod his way around a golf course and just get the exact shot at the exact right time.”
It is proving to be difficult to know what else there is to say about Scheffler’s success. The more and more you hear, the more you wonder if the 29-year-old is simply doing every little thing in the game just a fraction better than all of his peers.
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