Scheffler showing Tiger-like dominance

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This article was published 07/08/2025 (232 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Scottie Scheffler doesn’t wear red shirts on Sundays and is still 11 major championships in arrears, but Scheffler comparisons to Tiger Woods’ domination of the world of professional golf are getting louder, more frequent and quite legitimate.

Scheffler, a 29-year-old Texan, has been No. 1 on the Official World Golf Rankings for more than 100 weeks and it’s becoming more apparent every day that he’ll likely stay there for another couple of hundred weeks.

The quiet, modest family man won his fourth major championship in July at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, beating a stacked field with a 17-under-par 267. He won by four shots and those left in his wake were quick to let the world know they were completely outclassed.

“I don’t think we thought the golfing world would see someone as dominant as Tiger come through so soon, and here’s Scottie sort of taking that throne of dominance,” said Xander Schauffele, who is No. 2 in the world ranking but needs a telescope to see the throne on which Scheffler sits.

Said Harris English, who finished second at Portrush: “There’s no stat that he’s bad in. It’s like, how do you beat this guy?” Rory McIlroy, generally regarded as Scheffler’s chief rival, said “you could argue that there’s only maybe two or three players in the history of the game that have been on a run, the one that Scottie’s been on here for the last 24 to 36 months.”

It’s tough to win major championships — Scheffler has four in 21 starts, plus an Olympic gold medal — but he is so steady, his game so devoid of round-killing mistakes, that he is a pre-tournament favourite every time he tees it up. He has made 59 cuts in a row and were he to miss a cut somewhere along the way, that would be the tournament’s lead story. His game shows no weaknesses. His rather unorthodox footwork and booming swing delivers a gentle left-to-right shot from the tee and his iron shots are incredibly close to the proper distance. His putting, once the weakest part of his game, has improved dramatically.

Scheffler got a later start on the PGA Tour than did Woods, who won his first tournament, the Las Vegas Invitational, at age 20. Scheffler didn’t turn pro until he was 22, in 2020, the year he won Rookie-of-the-Year honours. His first pro win came in 2022, in his 71st start, at the Phoenix Open. Since then, he’s been Woods-like in his victory runs — 17 in his next 76. At that torrid pace (22.3 per cent), he would win four to five tournaments a year. With at least 10 to 15 years left in his playing career, Scheffler may threaten Woods’ all-time victory total of 82.

As good as Woods? Better than Woods? The low-key Scheffler, who says faith and family are his two top priorities — not golf — says any comparisons to Tiger are “silly.”

“I think Tiger stands alone in the game of golf.”

What’s truly silly is discounting the possibility of Scheffler becoming the all-time No. 1.

OUT OF BOUNDS

• Columnist Norman Chad, on the NHL regular season expanding from 82 to 84 games: “We need two more Columbus Blue Jackets games every year like Elon Musk needs two more children every September.”

• Vancouver comedy guy Torben Rolfsen: “Water on Mars has been 100 per cent confirmed, with year-round ice. Get ready for Bettman to start sniffing round.”

• Rolfsen again: “Pirates’ Jacob Misiorowski was named to the all-star team after only five major league games. That’s only five more than I’ve played.”

• Norman Chad again: “After a rough (poker) stretch in Vegas, I set out to punish myself with a 275-mile walk in 107-degree heat. I made it three miles before calling it quits — and rewarded myself with a $1.50 hot dog.”

• Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: “WNBA players sent a message to the league for bigger salaries and better benefits by wearing T-shirts before the all-star game that said, ‘Pay Us What You Owe Us.’ Actually, what the T-shirts should have said was, ‘Pay Caitlin Clark What You Owe Her.’”

• Bianchi again: “President Trump is threatening to block the construction of a new football stadium in the nation’s capital unless the NFL’s Washington Commanders change their nickname back to Redskins. Because nothing says ‘I care about the people’ more than holding a city hostage over a racially insensitive nickname.”

• RJ Currie of sportsdeke.com: “According to the website Medical Daily, U.S. scientists consider marijuana beer potentially life-threatening. Snowboarders consider it a time-saver.”

• Headline at fark.com: “Kraken sign Kaapo Kakko to three-year kontrakt.”

• Another fark.com headline after the Mets acquired lefthanded pitcher Gregory Soto from Baltimore: “Mets decide two Sotos are better than Juan.”

• Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun: “Kevin Gausman didn’t major in geography at LSU but give him credit for his honesty: Tweeted Gausman recently: ‘Not gonna lie. I had no idea how close Detroit was to Canada. I was shocked we had so many Blue Jays fans there.’”

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