Scottie Scheffler is on perhaps the most dominant run for any men's professional golfer since Tiger Woods was at the peak of his powers. At the 2024 RBC Heritage, which he won by three shots over Sahith Theegala, Scheffler became the first golfer since Woods in 2007-08 to win four tournaments across five starts.
Not only does Scheffler hold those four victories, they came on some of the most difficult tests across the PGA Tour schedule. And as for the one tournament he did not win? Scheffler still finished T2 at the Houston Open.
There are so many ways to present greatness, especially when it is this obvious and dominant. Scheffler himself said early last week in Hilton Head, South Carolina -- shortly after his Masters victory -- that sport (specifically golf) is about trying to find something special.
"What's great about our sport is the competition," he said. "That's what I love the most is coming out here and competing. So, if a little bit of the narrative could get shifted back towards that, I think that would be really nice. You look at something like March Madness and they're not competing for any money or anything like that.
"You can look at the women's game. The women in college now, they're staying four years in school. There's good rivalries; you have teams pitted against each other year after year, and it's really intriguing to watch. And it's not about anything other than wanting to witness something great and enjoying the competition."
It's not about anything other than wanting to witness something great.
That describes Scheffler and his game quite well.
The statistics are simply staggering. At one point at the RBC Heritage, Scheffler had exceeded 50 holes without making anything worse than a 4. That's laugh-out-loud good, and it's just the beginning when it comes to breaking down how awesome Scheffler has been playing over the last few months.
Scheffler's run of four wins in five starts dates back to the beginning of March, but his overall run of 11 worldwide victories over his last 51 events is nearly as impressive.
Here are seven figures that serve as a testament to just how immense Scheffler's game has been of late.
76 under: If a golfer played Scheffler's last five stats -- Arnold Palmer Invitational, Players Championship, Houston Open, Masters, RBC Heritage -- made the cut at all five and played them at an average clip, he would be 1 under at the end of those 20 rounds. Across that stretch, Scheffler is 76 strokes below par. Of course, that is just another way to look at strokes gained, but it sometimes resonates more when put in this perspective rather than pointing out that he's gained nearly 4.0 strokes per round over five consecutive tournaments.
$16.3 million: The record for money earned in a single PGA Tour season was set by Scheffler last year when he collected $21 million on the course (not including the FedEx Cup bonus). Second on the list is Jon Rahm, who brought home $16.5 million last year. The third highest? That would be Scheffler ... in the last 43 days. He's earned $16.3 million since the beginning of March when the Arnold Palmer Invitational started. That's more than $45,000 per hole of golf he's played over his last five events.
$1.78 million: This year, Rory McIlroy has made $1.71 million in PGA Tour earnings. Scheffler's caddie, Ted Scott, has made approximately $1.78 million. (That's applying the standard 5% take home for making a cut, 7% for finishing in the top 10 and 10% when a golfer wins a tournament.) That would rank Scott well inside the top 50 on this year's PGA Tour money list.
39 and 67.5: Scheffler has opened the season with -- count 'em -- 39 consecutive rounds at par or better. His scoring average is currently 67.50. The PGA Tour record for scoring average in a season is 67.79 by Tiger. Remarkably, Woods hit that exact number in both 2000 and 2007.
| Score | Frequency |
|---|---|
| 63 | 1 |
| 64 | 3 |
| 65 | 3 |
| 66 | 9 |
| 67 | 3 |
| 68 | 7 |
| 69 | 4 |
| 70 | 6 |
| 71 | 2 |
| 72 | 1 |
| 73+ | 0 |
119: It took Scheffler just 119 PGA Tour events to reach 10 official victories, according to Data Golf. Of golfers who have reached 10 wins in the last 25 years, Scheffler's number is right in the Jordan Spieth range. Both trail Woods and McIlroy in terms of number of events it took to get to 10 wins.
| Golfer | Events played to reach 10 wins |
|---|---|
Tiger Woods | 76 |
Rory McIlroy | 92 |
Scottie Scheffler | 119 |
Jordan Spieth | 120 |
Phil Mickelson | 130 |
Jon Rahm | 135 |
Justin Thomas | 136 |
Dustin Johnson | 192 |
Perhaps even more interesting? Scheffler is having an all-time floodgates run in that all 10 of his PGA Tour victories have happened in his last 51 starts. That's ... Tiger-like.
18.7 and 3,215: Scheffler has more than doubled the next-closest competitor this year in both official money earned ($18.7 million) and FedEx Cup points accumulated (3,215). Wyndham Clark is next at $9.1 million and 1,555, respectively That's not the average PGA Tour player, it's the next best player on the PGA Tour so far in 2024. Additionally, the gap in Official World Golf Rankings points between Scheffler and the No. 2 player in the world, McIlroy, is more than the gap between McIlroy and ... you.
2: Only twice in eight events that were measured across all 72 holes did Scheffler not finish No. 1 from tee to green. In those events, he finished second and third. Here's the scary part: Scheffler was the worst putter among the top nine golfers on the RBC Heritage leaderboard, and he still won by three strokes. This is what is meant when you hear somebody say, "If he just putts average, he'll win." Scottie is putting a bit above average right now, and he's winning everything despite the expectation that he will, you know, win everything.
"I do have fairly high expectations for myself, and when I show up at tournaments, I try to do my best," Scheffler said Monday after winning for the fourth time in five starts. "I've talked a lot about kind of the preparation and what it takes for me to show up on a first tee ready to go, and I feel like I've been putting in the work and been playing some good golf, and it's nice to be seeing some results for that with wins. At times last year, I felt like I was playing some good golf and wasn't winning, and so now, it's nice to be sitting here winning some tournaments."
