Scottie Scheffler has drawn comparisons with one of golf's all-time greats after claiming his second Masters triumph in three years, continuing a run of dominance in 2024; Watch every men's and women's major live on Sky Sports Golf in 2024 or stream with NOW
Tuesday 16 April 2024 06:03, UK
Heading into last week, Tiger Woods stood alone as the only golfer to have won The Masters and The Players Championship – the men's game's unofficial 'fifth major' – in the same year. Now, he has company.
Equalling Woods' iconic achievement from 2001 is not the only reason Scottie Scheffler, Masters champion for the second time after a four-shot victory at Augusta National on Sunday, has been compared to him on a run of dominance in recent months which has been rarely seen since, well, Woods in his pomp.
One person who has resisted drawing those comparisons so far is Butch Harmon, Woods' renowned coach of 11 years. Yet while acknowledging Scheffler does not, at present, have the longevity of looming large over the sport in the way his one-time pupil did, the great golfing sage conceded he is showing every sign of being the heir apparent.
"It's pretty impressive everything he's done this year," Harmon told Sky Sports Golf. "There's a reason he's No 1 in the world, there's a reason he's won two Masters now, there's a reason Scottie Scheffler is the man.
"He's got to do it for 19 more years [to match Woods], but right now who says he can't?
"What can he do going forward? He can only get better - and that's a scary thought."
At 27 years and 298 days old, Scheffler became the fifth-youngest player to win two Masters titles, which is two years and 199 days older than Woods was when he triumphed for the second time at Augusta - coincidentally, in the same year as he did his Players-Masters double as well.
Scheffler is only the fifth player to win two Masters titles before the age of 30 as well, although he would have to win the next two as well if he is to equal Woods' record of four victories in the prestigious invitation event in that timeframe.
They are, however, the only two players to hold the distinction of leading after 54 holes of The Masters and going on to win while No 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking on two occasions, with Woods doing so in 2001 and 2002 followed by Scheffler matching that two years ago and this year.
Yet even Woods took three attempts to claim the green jacket for the first time and a further four to pull it on again. Scheffler has now triumphed twice in his first five starts at Augusta National, a record only inaugural winner Horton Smith (1934 and 1936) has bettered.
What was most impressive for Sky Sports Golf analyst Paul McGinley, though, was the way the American had to rely on different aspects of his game than he has done in other successes this year, with the leading player in strokes gained on the PGA Tour this year (+1.35) ranking only 24th (+0.53) going into the final round of The Masters.
"This guy is not on his game, not playing his best golf, and yet he's still The Masters champion so you're looking at why - what is the secret sauce here?" McGinley told US broadcaster Golf Channel.
"He gets it done by if there's a dangerous hole...he relies on his brilliant short game. As off as his iron play was this week, what he did was when it came to a dangerous hole was he bailed out and relied on his chipping - he was the best chipper in the field this week.
"Then when he gets a short iron in his hand, that's go time and he takes advantage of that, and peeling off the par-fives as well.
"But when there was trouble, he played away from it and relied on his chipping when he needed to. It was a brilliant performance in managing your game."
Scheffler's triumph in the first major of the year marked his third victory in nine tournaments so far this year, along with four other top-10 finishes, and is the first player to win at least times on the PGA Tour in the span of three seasons since Justin Thomas between the 2016/17 and 2018/19 campaigns.
However, all of his tournament wins in his career to date have come prior to that year's Masters and his best performance in any of the other three majors is tying for second in the 2022 US Open and last year's PGA Championship.
Nevertheless, he is averaging 67.6 per round from 35 played so far this year with only one score worse than 71 and has not shot a round over par since August last year. On that kind of form, Harmon expects Scheffler to break his post-Masters duck this year and highlighted his strategic approach as being the biggest key to victory.
"He is a tactician around the golf course," Harmon said. "He won this tournament as much with his brain as he did with his golf clubs.
"He is the complete package. Yes, he's No 1 in the world and there's probably no-one else close - I used to think Jon Rahm was close, but he isn't anymore. This guy is going to take over this mantle for a while.
"He's never won a tournament after the Masters - I don't think this year is over with. He's going to win two or three more the way he is playing."
Watch every men's and women's major live on Sky Sports Golf in 2024 or stream with NOW.
The first women's major of the year, The Chevron Championship, is live from 3pm this Thursday, with the next men's major, the PGA Championship at Valhalla in Kentucky, taking place from May 16-19.
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