Scottie Scheffler had one of the all-time standout seasons on the PGA TOUR in 2024. The World No 1 had seven wins on the PGA TOUR, highlighted by victories at the US Masters, The Players Championship and the Fed Ex Cup, while collecting a record prize money total of US$62 million. Capping off his remarkable year was a gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
How good was the year Scheffler had and how does it rate when compared to some of the greats of the past?
By Micheal Court
I’M a big fan of Scottie Scheffler, OK?
Having said that, one summer doesn’t make him one of the best ever.
After all, he only earned a mere $62m this year on the PGA Tour.
It’s impossible to put that in perspective and measure it alongside the likes of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
Granted he’s had a heck of a year . . . and we’re not even counting his gold medal win at the Olympics, where he supposedly played for nothing but a medal.
As great as Sheffler’s year was, the money side of pro golf is now out of control, with a little help from LIV, of course.
Scheffler stuck by the PGA Tour and without any opposition from the likes of LIV stars Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and others he took home an amazing average of $3.3m for every tournament he played in.
Further analysis shows he made $830,000 for every round he played which equated to about $12,000 for every shot.
And if you think your round of golf is taking too long of a weekend, feel for Sheffler who was earning $3000 for every minute he was on a golf course this year, assuming each round of competition took him about four and a half hours.
Want to compare that to anything the greatest two golfers of all-time, Nicklaus and Woods earned or won?
Well, Nicklaus, now in his 80s is about 14th on the all-time money list and Tiger sits second behind only Rory McIlroy.
After just a couple of years, Scheffler has already moved to about seventh in the all-time list.
So, heaven knows how many dollars he will have earned by the time his career begins to wind down.
Of course, there is a chance he could do a Bill Rogers and be a one-season wonder. But I doubt it.
. . . And he still misses quite a few two-to-three-foot putts each month.
And that’s a lot more than I ever saw Nicklaus or Woods miss in their prime.
By Peter Owen
AS much as I admire his skill I’ve got to confess that I can’t get excited about watching Scottie Scheffler play golf. Maybe it’s just because he is so good that I find myself subconsciously rooting for the guys chasing him, unless of course the chasers are Xander Schauffele, or Collin Morikawa or, worst of all, Justin Thomas.
But give the bloke his due – he’s just completed the best season of golf that anybody has ever seen. What about the greats of yesteryear, you may ask. What about Nicklaus, Woods, Palmer, Player, Hogan, Snead, Norman and the like?
Put simply, they wouldn’t get within cooee of Scheffler. He’d kill them. But, then, so would Sahith Theegala, Sam Burns and Patrick Cantlay. So would half the professionals playing around the world.
The average professional on the PGA Tour, LIV Golf or DP World Tour would outdrive, out putt and outthink all those former champions – simply because they play with better equipment, and they’re fitter, stronger, better coached and better prepared.
They all have physios, nutritionists, personal trainers and mental coaches. And they’re competing against better players. The competition today is so intense, the pool of accomplished golfers so deep, that a no-name like Nick Dunlap can gatecrash the PGA Tour and win twice in his first year of competition.
It’s ridiculous to suggest that Hogan was better than Nicklaus, or Nicklaus better than Woods, or Woods better than Scheffler. All you can do is compare the champions of the past with the people they played against.
Scottie Scheffler’s performance this year is the best there’s ever been. No doubt. And he’s a young man. He’ll obviously win more tournaments, more majors, more Fedex Cups and more money. He’s the best golfer of this generation.
But somebody will come along in 20 years’ time and win a stack of events and we’ll be asking the same question again? Is the new champ better than good old Scottie Scheffler? And, of course, he will be better. That’s the way it goes. That’s evolution.
By Michael Davis
It would be churlish by any measure to deny Scotty Scheffler the position he has rightfully earned in the game’s pantheon.
Indeed, the stunning season he has had on the 2024 PGA Tour demands it.
Already I can hear the naysayers bleating in the background.
‘Oh, all the best players have gone to LIV,’ they protest.
‘No Rahm, no Koepka, no Cameron Smith…,’ they bleat.
‘But fair go,’ I say.
Scheffler can only beat the field in which he plays.
It’s not his fault the big names defected to LIV for huge pay days.
However, if and when the final peace pipe is smoked between LIV and the PGA Tour, I expect Scheffler’s dominance to continue unabated.
His season was nothing short of amazing becoming the first player to win seven times – eight according to Scheffler, who counts the gold medal at the Paris Olympics – since Tiger Woods in 2007. In the last 40 years, Scheffler joins Woods, who did it four times, and Vijay Singh, who won nine times in 2004.
Those who think comparisons between Woods and Scheffler are premature should consider the words of our very own Adam Scott.
Scott played against Tiger when Woods was in his prime and finished tied for fourth in the season ending FedEx championship behind Scheffler.
“I think it is on par with those great years of Tiger’s,” Scott said. “I think it’s very hard today for anyone to separate themselves as much as Scotty has. I don’t think we’ve seen that in a long time. I think it’s harder to do it today.”
Who am I to disagree?
By Larry Canning
I’m not sure why we really need to compare Scotty Scheffler with anyone in the past to be honest.
Jack Nicklaus is the deserved GOAT when pure talent was the defining measure.
Tiger had a talent I don’t think we will ever see again. In his reign, the Royal and ‘Arrogant’ Golf Course of St Andrews had the opportunity to slow down the eminent threat of reducing our game and golf courses to a science and an equation, but chose to sit on their hands. Then they come out with ‘wow we’d better be seen doing something” knee jerk reaction by banning a putting method that could keep yippers in with a chance to still compete.
Golf’s been lucky we’ve had two Donald Bradman’s in the space of both my lifetimes, but those days are now behind us.
So, let’s just sit back in our loungerooms or have a beer with a mate at the clubhouse and celebrate how good Scottie Scheffler is!
He is not another version of anyone from the past, but he is the newest form of golfing dominance. He won’t win 15 majors but will go into any tournament played in the near future as raging favourite and that’s great for our game.
“Who’s going to beat Scottie Scheffler this week” is a terrific conversation to have each week at the bar.
Let’s reinvent the conversation to one that’s more realistic. I still love watching the best players in the world compete on whatever tour they play and as far as the PGA TOUR is concerned, Scottie is without peer.