THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP WINNER

It is not premature to say that Scottie Scheffler now ranks among the historical greats in golf. He did it yet again, winning The Open (or British Open) to mark his fourth major championship victory along with completing three legs of the Grand Slam.

Five players prior to Scheffler have won three legs of the Grand Slam prior to the age of 30, and two of them (Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods) went on to win all four. It’s hard to imagine that Scheffler will never win the U.S. Open, but stranger things have happened in golf. Sam Snead never won it, and Phil Mickelson has six runner-up finishes, so you never know for sure.

What we can say for sure is that comparisons of Scheffler to Tiger Woods are not off-base. Since winning his first PGA Tour event in 2022, Scheffler has amassed 17 PGA Tour victories in his last 76 starts for a 22.4% winning percentage, which is virtually identical to Woods’ record. In addition, an off-week for Scheffler means a finish somewhere around 10th place, which is also what Woods did during his prime. It was thought before Scheffler’s dominance that no golfer would become that dominant again due to the high quality of modern-day equipment and the depth of the fields, but obviously that is not the case. The only difference right now between Scheffler and Woods is that Woods remained dominant for over a decade while Scheffler is just getting started.