After winning the PGA Championship May 18, Scottie Scheffler collected his son, Bennett, from wife Meredith and carried the 1-year-old past cheering fans toward the scoring area.
Bennett won’t remember a thing about his dad winning his third major championship, so “We’ll have to show him those videos later in life,” Scheffler said. “Because he definitely doesn’t have any idea what’s going on.”
Join the club, kid. Even PGA Tour players don’t know what to make of Scheffler’s meteoric climb to the top of golf, in which he has won 15 tour events in just over three years, including seven in 2024, when he also won Olympic gold in Paris. That is Tiger-like. Scheffler has three wins, six top-threes and 13 top-10s over his first 22 starts in major championships. Tiger Woods went 5-7-11, Rory McIlroy 2-5-8 and Jordan Spieth 3-7-8. That’s some sterling company to keep.
Or how about this? Scheffler, 28, is one of only three players since World War II to have won three majors and 15 tour events before turning 29. The other two? Woods and Memorial Tournament host Jack Nicklaus. The Apollo 11 crew of golf.
Is Scottie Scheffler the next Tiger Woods or Jordan Spieth?
Before crowning Scheffler the next El Tigre or Golden Bear, it should be noted that it is possible, though increasingly improbable, that he becomes the next Spieth, Hal Sutton or Johnny Miller — players whose dominance did not last as long as predicted. A decade ago, it was fashionable to suggest Spieth might be walking in the same footsteps as Woods, Nicklaus and a handful of other golf luminaries whose careers started strong and kept getting better.
But Spieth, a Texan like Scheffler, not only has failed to win a major since the 2017 British Open, but has won only twice on tour since then, the last time in 2022. That isn’t a knock on Spieth as much as a cautionary tale that winning on tour is hard. Even if Scheffler makes it look easy.
A sampling of tour players’ thoughts on Scheffler making it a habit of hoisting trophies.
Chris Kirk: “It’s amazing to play at that level that often. All of us on the PGA Tour are capable of playing that good of golf, but to do it week in, week out is fascinating to me.”
Russell Henley: “Scottie winning (seven) times (in 2024) is unbelievable. To play well in the big events and to keep winning and keep winning when you know everybody is looking at you? It’s impressive in our day to see somebody come out and do that.”
Collin Morikawa: “I’ve only played with a handful of players throughout my career so far who seem they have full control, and when you have full control of the golf ball (like Scheffler does), not just for one week but for an entire season, and honestly over the past couple years, it’s incredible to watch.”
Fans attending the Memorial will get to watch it. Scheffler returns to defend his 2024 title at Muirfield Village fresh off a tie for fourth at the Colonial, yet another top-10 finish made all the more impressive because he arrived in Fort Worth, Texas straight from the PGA Championship. There is no mailing it in with this guy. Woods was the same way.
Woods and Scheffler are also similar in how they approach golf. Woods recently explained, “We see shots into the greens very similarly, how we miss golf balls into the correct spots. It’s not always pretty, but it’s not about the here and now. It’s about the long game. It’s over 72 holes. It’s not a sprint; it’s a marathon. I think that’s the similarity in how we play the game.”
What, if anything, can slow Scottie Scheffler down?
At the moment, one wonders if anything besides injury or a personal setback, both of which hit Woods hard, can slow Scheffler.
Scheffler, like Woods, has experienced a shocking off-course incident, although Scheffler’s appears to have been more of a one-off, isolated situation: He was arrested by Louisville, Kentucky, police at the 2024 PGA Championship during a traffic misunderstanding outside the gates of Valhalla Golf Club. Charges eventually were dropped, but Scheffler spent a few hours in jail before getting released in the early morning, then showed his mental toughness by shooting 66 the same day.
In early May, he addressed what it is like dealing with personal distractions, which have curtailed more than a few promising tour careers.
“If things were very poor off the course, it would be very difficult to play well,” he said. “Just because things are good off the course doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be good on the course, but having a good, healthy life off the course helps me play better golf. It’s been a sweet season of life for me and Meredith, and we’ve definitely been enjoying it.”
Some players’ games suffer when children enter the picture. So far, Scheffler has thrived being a first-time father.
“In terms of having kids, it changes the routine, my practice schedule and things like that, but I feel as my career has gone on, I’ve had to get more efficient with my time,” he said. “I also have a very supportive wife who appreciates that I like to work hard at my job.”
That hard work, combined with a strong mental game and immense physical talent, makes Scheffler tough to beat.
As Woods put it, “If he’s putting well, he’s virtually unstoppable.”
And if he keeps it up, little Bennett will be able to appreciate it in person one day.
Sports columnist Rob Oller can be reached at roller@dispatch.com and on X.com at @rollerCD. Read his columns from the Buckeyes’ national championship…
