{"id":15805,"date":"2025-07-22T15:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T15:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/15805\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T15:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T15:58:11","slug":"scottie-scheffler-v-tiger-woods-the-breakdown-why-golf-insiders-insist-open-winner-really-can-match-tiger-and-the-key-areas-where-hes-already-got-the-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/15805\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottie Scheffler v Tiger Woods – the breakdown: Why golf insiders insist Open winner really can match Tiger, and the key areas where he’s already got the edge"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was one statistic that cut to the heart of a long-brewing sentiment after Scottie Scheffler<\/a>\u2019s dominant victory at the Open Championship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The number was remarkable, for it transpired that the 1,197 days between Scheffler\u2019s first major win and fourth was identical to the respective span of a near-mythical figure in his sport \u2013 Tiger Woods<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When the comparisons were spelled out to Scheffler on Sunday night, the 29-year-old was resistant to the thought. His words: \u2018I still think they’re a bit silly.\u2019 But the rest of the golfing world doesn\u2019t believe it is. Not at all.<\/p>\n

\u2018I don’t think we thought the golfing world would see someone as dominant as Tiger come through so soon and here’s Scottie taking that throne,\u2019 said world No 3 and two-time major champion Xander Schauffele. \u2018I think people are afraid to say it but he\u2019s doing some Tiger-like stuff. When you see his name up on the leaderboard, it sucks for us.\u2019<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy<\/a> was no less effusive: \u2018Scottie is the bar that we’re all trying to get to. In a historical context, you could argue that there’s only maybe two or three players in the history of the game that have had a run like the one that Scottie’s been on here for the last 36 months. Incredibly impressive.\u2019<\/p>\n

Indeed. The best since Woods? Scheffler\u2019s career is trending rapidly in that direction<\/a>. But how does he rank against arguably the greatest golfer in history?<\/p>\n

\"Scottie <\/p>\n

Scottie Scheffler collected the fourth major of his career on Sunday at Royal Portrush<\/p>\n

\"Tiger <\/p>\n

Tiger Woods dominated golf for a decade, and has racked up 15 majors – leaving Scheffler with a huge mountain to climb<\/p>\n

THE SILVERWARE<\/p>\n

Since his first PGA Tour-level win in 2022, having turned pro four years earlier, Scheffler has been imperious. He has claimed an astonishing 13 tour-level victories, two Masters titles, the 2025 US PGA Championship, the Open and an Olympic gold medal last year.<\/p>\n

Aged 29, he is a US Open away from completing the career slam and has been world No 1 for a combined total of 149 weeks since March 2022.<\/p>\n

Woods? It\u2019s a harsh yardstick \u2013 if we keep to his first 146 professional starts, as a means of like-for-like comparison to Scheffler, he won a mind-boggling 37 times including eight majors.<\/p>\n

The Olympics aside, which wasn\u2019t part of the golf calendar around the turn of the millennium, Woods won roughly double Scheffler\u2019s haul. On top-10s, they are well matched, with Woods on 82 and Scheffler 72.<\/p>\n

\"Woods <\/p>\n

Woods won a staggering eight majors in his first 146 starts, including his 1997 Augusta victory<\/p>\n

THE TEMPERAMENT AND BEHAVIOUR<\/p>\n

Two characters united by a similar competitive ferocity but wildly different in nature. Woods was announced to the world by Nike and a vociferous father stating he would have the biggest impact on mankind since Jesus.<\/p>\n

Woods was intimidatingly cold to his playing partners, a golfing assassin ordained for greatness and he never shied away from it.<\/p>\n

Scheffler is amiable, deeply religious and more of an aw-shucks kind of guy \u2013 he told us last week he had no desire to be a transcending figure or an inspiration.<\/p>\n

His other comments during Open week about finding a lack of fulfilment in golf came from placing it a distant third in his priorities behind family and faith.<\/p>\n

That level of perspective has perhaps contributed to his calm, almost robotic, demeanour on the course. It\u2019s a marked difference to how he was as a young player – he was fiery, and his college coach in Texas John Fields once told me about Scheffler kicking holes in the gymnasium wall after a table tennis defeat.<\/p>\n

Now calmer, and far more balanced in his private life than Woods, his mind is his greatest weapon. Where scandals derailed Woods\u2019s career, and conspired with a multitude of injuries to limit him to 15 majors, Scheffler could have an edge in this department in the coming years.<\/p>\n

Aside from that surreal arrest for a motoring offence at the PGA Championship in 2024, Scheffler has never come close to a salacious headline.<\/p>\n

\"Scheffler <\/p>\n

Scheffler is amiable, deeply religious and more of an aw-shucks kind of guy \u2013 he told us last week he had no desire to be a transcending figure or an inspiration<\/p>\n

THE GAME<\/p>\n

Comparisons are tricky because Woods\u2019s career was far longer and the grandest of his peaks \u2013 the 2000 season, when he won three majors and six other tour-level titles \u2013 pre-dates the time of detailed on-course statistics, particularly strokes-gained metrics.<\/p>\n

But we know what we saw \u2013 long off the tee and almost never missed a putt that mattered. A recent Golf Digest\u00a0investigation into Woods’s 2000 season showed he was 3.84 strokes better than the average score of the field in each round.<\/p>\n

Scheffler\u2019s corresponding figure of 2.56 strokes demonstrates that he dominates, but not by as much. Let’s break it down:<\/p>\n

\"Woods <\/p>\n

Woods celebrated winning the 2000 Open Championship at St Andrews during the grandest of his peaks<\/p>\n

\"Scheffler <\/p>\n

Scheffler slipped on the Green Jacket after winning the Masters at Augusta in 2024<\/p>\n

Tee to green:\u00a0Both men are masters of this area. Using Woods\u2019s 2006 stats (when he won the US PGA and Open, same as Scheffler this year), he was 2.98 strokes better than the average of the field per round in the combination of driving and approaches.\u00a0In 20 years, no one has come close to matching it other than Scheffler, who gained 2.40 strokes on the field average with his tee to green play in his eight-win season in 2024 and 2.27 strokes in 2025. Scheffler\u2019s average driving distance of 304 yards is fractionally longer than Woods of 2000 (298 yards), which is down to modern ball and club technology, and his accuracy (62 per cent) is less than peak Woods (71 per cent).<\/p>\n

Around the green: This is where Scheffler has an edge, ranking 17th and 25th on the PGA Tour in the last two years. In 2005, a year when Woods won two majors, he ranked 128th.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Putting:\u00a0No one made clutch putts like Woods. For Scheffler, this area was a disaster a couple of seasons ago, but after joining up with British putting coach Phil Kenyon in 2023, he has been transformed into a top-20 player on the greens. His putting was his greatest strength at the Open, where he made 90 per cent of attempts inside 10 feet, but Woods was king in this domain at his best.<\/p>\n

Technique:\u00a0Like Ben Hogan, you would show Woods\u2019s 2000 swing to your kids. Scheffler\u2019s equivalent, incredibly effective as it is, would be less advisable for that distinctive foot shuffle that appears in no manuals. Shane Lowry said: \u2018If Scottie’s feet stayed stable and his swing looked like Adam Scott’s, we’d be talking about him in the same words as Tiger.\u2019<\/p>\n

THE THRILL FACTOR<\/p>\n

\"Woods's <\/p>\n

Woods’s famous chip in at 16 at Augusta in 2005 was a wow moment – but it may not be a bad thing that Scheffler does not have as many of these<\/p>\n

Woods every day of the week, and five times on Sunday. But a thought on this: the Woods highlight reel is dominated by amazing acts of recovery and fist-pumping eruptions, like the chip-in on the 16th at Augusta in 2005.<\/p>\n

Scheffler\u2019s is less exciting, but is that because he gets himself out of position less often?<\/p>\n

THE VERDICT<\/p>\n

Scheffler is dominating his era in a manner unseen since Woods. His personality also means it might even be sustained for years to come.<\/p>\n

A comparison is not remotely \u2018silly\u2019, but all evidence tells us that he is not there yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was one statistic that cut to the heart of a long-brewing sentiment after Scottie Scheffler\u2019s dominant victory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[97,5904,3026,217,101,8937,56,54,158,55],"class_list":["post-15805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-dailymail","tag-golf","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-tiger-woods","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}