Scottie Scheffler has a long way to go to catch Tiger Woods.
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Tiger Woods comparisons generally are a really good thing.
But after Scottie Scheffler joined Woods as one of seven multiple-time Players champions, he was reminded of what could be viewed as a slightly depressing statistic.
The current World No. 1 has been on a tear the past 25 months; Scheffler earned his first PGA Tour win in February 2022 at the WM Phoenix Open and hasn’t slowed down much since.
He won three more times over the next three months that season, including his first major title at the Masters. He won in Scottsdale again in 2023 before taking the Players Championship a month later. Scheffler didn’t win for 52 weeks after that (gasp!), but that didn’t stop him from cementing his place at the top of the sport.
While Scheffler didn’t win an official event between March 2023 and March 2024, he racked up top-10s at a mind-boggling pace. For the entire 2022-23 PGA Tour season, he finished outside the top 12 just three times. His next start, after the Tour Championship, at the unofficial Hero World Challenge? He won.
In the past two weeks, the 27-year-old has returned to his official winning ways, taking the Arnold Palmer Invitational and defending his title at TPC Sawgrass, becoming the first to accomplish the feat.
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According to the analytics site, DataGolf, Scheffler’s current peak of +2.82 in the DG Index is the fourth highest of all-time, behind Woods in 2000, Vijay Singh in 2004 and David Duval in 1999. He’s been able to maintain — and elevate — that number despite losing strokes on the green until the last couple of weeks.
But, being compared to Woods ain’t easy, and on Sunday night at TPC Sawgrass Scheffler shared a funny revelation about how far he has to go to draw legitimate comparisons to Woods’ sustained run of dominance.
“I’m not going to remember the exact numbers, but like we’re playing at Riv this year, and I hit my tee ball and this guy yells out, like, ‘Congrats on being No. 1 Scottie. Eleven more years to go,’” Scheffler recalled, cracking up the press room.
“Eleven more years to go,” he repeated for emphasis.
The fan at last month’s Genesis Invitational was referring to Woods’ incredible mark of 683 weeks atop the Official World Golf Ranking, more than double the total of the next closest player. Woods was also World No. 1 for two separate streaks of 281 and 264 weeks — again, both more than double the next best.
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Scheffler, meanwhile, is working on a run of 44 straight weeks atop of the OWGR for a total of 79 weeks in his career, all of which have come in the last two years. That means to catch Woods, Scheffler needs to hold the world’s top ranking for another 604 weeks, or about 11 years and seven and a half months.
The win he logged Sunday was the eighth of his career, leaving him 76 behind Woods’ record total on the PGA Tour, not to mention Scheffler’s lone major title is 14 fewer than Woods’ mark.
“Anytime you can be compared to Tiger I think is really special, but, I mean, the guy stands alone I think in our game,” Scheffler said. “He really does. This is my eighth tournament win now out here, I’ve tied him in Players Championships. Outside of that, I got 14 more majors and 70-some PGA Tour events to catch up. So I think I’m going to stick to my routine and just continue to plot along, try and stay as even-keeled as I can.
“We all idolize Tiger. He’s been our guy. Watching what he did in special moments over the years is crazy to watch. I’ve learned a lot just from being around him. We’re just very thankful that he’s still a part of our sport.”
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