What Makes Scottie Scheffler Different
Scottie can't be beat and I'd like to offer a statless reason why.
Scottie Scheffler is a three-time major champion. His first major championship away from the grounds of Augusta National and his third overall. The 107th PGA Championship and the Wanamaker trophy is his.
For those keeping count, that’s 15 PGA Tour wins since February of 2022. In about 40 months, he has two Masters, a PGA, two Players (in back to back fashion) and many, many more accolades. Jordan Spieth’s all time career? Scottie’s done that in three years and then some.
We could dive deep into the strokes gained metrics, but that would be counterproductive to the original spirit of this newsletter. So, let’s dive in on the weight of Scottie Scheffler.
Scottie forces the feeling of perfection.
If there’s anywhere a one shot lead shouldn’t feel safe, it’s the final three holes at Quail Hollow. So similarly, a player trailing by one shouldn’t feel horrible about his chances to get into a playoff by just surviving the Green Mile.
The Green Mile, or the final three holes at Quail Hollow, played as the three toughest holes at the PGA Championship.
But what Scottie Scheffler does better than any other player in professional golf, is he forces perfection. He forces his closest chasers to hit brilliant golf shot after brilliant golf shot. Or maybe more importantly, he forces those trying to catch him to feel like they have to be perfect in order to track him down.
Let’s use Jon Rahm as an example. The Spaniard was back in major contention really for the first time since his 2023 Masters victory. He birdied eight, 10 and 11 in the middle of his final round to match Scheffler at the top of the leaderboard who was simultaneously turning in 37.
Rahm had all the momentum. It was Scottie going in the wrong direction.
Now, Rahm is one of the most intense golfers in the sport. That has to mentioned. But I couldn’t shake this sense that Rahmbo felt as though he needed every single shot that he didn’t get coming down the stretch.
The gnarly lip out on 13.
The bounce he didn’t get off the tee at 14.
The blasted putt just off the green at 15 that turned into essentially a three putt par on the par 5.
All of these things communicate one thing. He knew he needed to be perfect. Because Scottie wasn’t going to back up and he was probably going to go find birdies where you are supposed to on the back nine at Quail Hollow.
Hitting a bunker shot too short. Hitting a putt too far by. These are things I often do when I’m trying to be too perfect, when I’m getting too cute with a bunker shot or trying to capitalize with the putter and forget about the putt that will follow.
Rahm was still right there! He hadn’t yet imploded. And even when he missed the fairway on 16, the look in his eyes communicated much, much more than what one missed fairway in the toughest stretch of holes on Tour should’ve communicated.
What’s crazy is that Rahm was right! Even if he played the Green Mile in even par, he still loses by two. If he gets one of the two birdies that slipped his fingers on 14 and 15, he loses by one. If he gets both, he still probably loses because in the event that Scottie needed par on 18 he wouldn’t have made an “it doesn’t matter” bogey.
A large portion of Quail Hollow is a brutal, “hold on for dear life” test in major championship conditions. But the first six holes of the back nine are gettable. What did Scottie do on those six, you might ask? He made birdie on the short par 4 and the two par 5’s. In other words, he navigated his way to an under par nine in the exact way you’re supposed to.
The sense of perfection turned into mandatory perfection like it has so many times with the World No. 1.
I spent the weekend trying to put into words what makes Scottie so different from the other greats in the game right now.
Rory McIlroy just won the Masters. And he’s still the one with the best resume in professional golf in 2025. Side note: Pebble, Players, Masters is just a sick, sick trio of victories. However, he possesses one thing that Scottie doesn’t.
Doubt.
Remember Sunday at Augusta? How many times we thought Rory had won the Masters? How many times we thought it was over and he would never don that green blazer? The double on one. The four shot lead after the birdie on 10. Playing 11 through 14 4-over. The shots on 15 and 17. We played jump rope with Rory’s chances of winning that tournament.
On Sunday at Quail Hollow, not for a single second did I think anyone other than Scottie Scheffler was going to win that golf tournament. That’s a remarkable thing. Because it kinda looked like he wasn’t going to win that golf tournament. If it was anyone else I would’ve thought precisely that.
But I didn’t.
That’s the wall through which Scottie has broken. The wall of doubt. He’s broken through it and nobody else can get over it when trying to chase him down.
It’s for this reason that he wins by 3-4-5 shots over and over again. Even when the world’s best are within striking distance, they still feel miles away from out pacing him to the finish line.
The almost 29 year old will probably come down from the mountain top at some point. It’s highly unlikely he plays like this for 10 straight years (or even five). But beyond the ball striking and the putter that just isn’t a problem anymore, what seems impossible right now is someone toeing the line next to Scottie and not only golfing his ball better on Sunday, but also winning the mental battle. Scottie is undefeated when it matters in that category since the beginning of 2022.
It’s remarkable.
I’ve been alive for my fair share of the greats. Tiger. Lebron. The big three in tennis. Lewis Hamilton, if you will. But I’ve never been so well positioned to appreciate the greatness like I am right now. It’s a blast to watch and I don’t see many roadblocks ahead of Scottie right now.
That’s all I’ve got! I’ll turn my attention back to the sports world as a whole next week.
Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next week.