While there does not appear to be anything new left to say about Scottie Scheffler, the inquest into what exactly makes the world number one so special continues following his fifth victory of the year at the BMW Championship.
Scottie Scheffler has now won five times in his last 10 starts on the PGA Tour. That run includes victories at the PGA Championship and The Open Championship.
Scheffler has become the first player since 1973 to register 13 top eight finishes in a row. You would have to go back to The Players Championship for the last time the 29-year-old finished outside the top eight. Meanwhile, Scheffler has now finished inside the top 30 in his last 26 starts worldwide.
Scheffler is arguably rivalling Tiger Woods with his form over the last couple of years.
The ‘unbelievable’ shot only Scottie Scheffler can play consistently on the PGA Tour
Woods had a charisma golf has rarely seen. He embraced the moments when he had an opportunity to steal the show. And he seemed to know that he had the crowds eating out of the palm of his hand.
Scheffler, on the other hand, goes about his business very differently. He is not a showman like the 15-time major champion could be. So working out what exactly he does so much better than most of his peers is a lot tougher.
But it seems that Smylie Kaufman has spotted a particular skill Scheffler has which many of his rivals lack. Speaking on The Smylie Show after his win at Caves Valley, Kaufman noted that Scheffler’s ability to adapt to the conditions is absolutely remarkable.
“His driving on Sunday from what I saw in Memphis was just phenomenal, just absolutely wearing out the middle of the face. I watched him hit golf balls on Wednesday in Memphis last week too, watching him hit drivers and he’s got this other gear that he has and he also has that low cut that he can hit to get the ball in the fairway. He was hitting mid-180s on the Trackman the other day, on Wednesday, of last week. And he was just so accurate with that driver. And when he hits the ball in the fairway, if it’s 70 percent of the time, you just can’t beat him because his iron game is so much better than everybody else’s,” he said.
“The type of shot that he has consistently where other guys struggle is when the wind is kind of all over the place – it could be left, right, down, whatever – he finds a way to make the wind not be a factor, still hit it pin high and not short side himself and keep it between the middle of the green and the hole location. It’s every time, it’s unbelievable, his control of spin, trajectory and just making the ball fly right on top of the pin.”
What Tiger Woods said impressed him about Scottie Scheffler
It must be surreal for Woods every time an impressive player emerges and everyone starts to wonder just how close they can get to reaching the 49-year-old’s level.
The likes of Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth have definitely threatened to dominate their eras. McIlroy became only the sixth player ever to win the Career Grand Slam earlier this year.
However, Scheffler has won 21 times worldwide since the start of the 2022 season. That run includes four major titles. If he can sustain something like this dominance over the next decade, then it is hard to see what can stop Scheffler reaching double figures for major wins.
Scheffler put the golfing world on notice ahead of 2025 by winning the Hero World Challenge in December. And speaking during that event, Woods outlined what impressed him most about Scheffler.
“With his consistency each and every week he doesn’t really do anything really wrong. You see his footwork and all these different things, these contortions that he gets into. But if you stand behind him and watch the ball flight it is very tight either way, either left to right or right to left and he moves it up and down easily either way,” he said.
“He has driven it well all year. It’s very tight and consistent. His iron game is probably the best on tour. He hits it pin high whenever he chooses to be pin high.”
It still feels premature to say that Scheffler can catch Woods in the years to come. But there is no question that the pair separate themselves from their rivals with how easy they make everything look.
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