Tiger Woods and Scottie Scheffler on the Hero World Problem on Sunday.
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Like excellent and breathtaking, Tiger-like is an adjective that needs to be used sparingly.
However when assessing Scottie Scheffler’s 2024, it’s laborious not to attract Tiger Woods comparisons, and never solely as a result of Woods was trying on approvingly on the Hero World Problem Sunday when Scheffler joined Woods and Vijay Singh as the one gamers within the fashionable period to have received 9 instances — 9 instances, Mrs. Bueller! — in a season.
It’s the completeness of Scheffler’s recreation that almost all evokes peak Woods, paired with Scheffler’s superhuman skill to finds methods to win even when he’s not at his sharpest. On Sunday night, after his breezy six-shot win within the Bahamas, Scheffler was requested if he was happy along with his final-round nine-under 63. His reply prompt that he was not, or at the very least not fully.
“Yeah,” he started. “I imply, you understand, I’m very grateful to be sitting right here with the trophy. My objective or no matter going into at the moment was to hopefully win the event and I felt like I performed adequate golf to win and was in a position to get it carried out.”
Adequate, LOL. This on a day when no different participant managed higher than a 67.
Scheffler wanted to beat “solely” 19 different gamers at Albany, however his stat line indicated that, if requested of him, he probably would have beat 119. Or, for that matter, 1,119.
Scheffler led the sphere in a minimum of 11 statistical classes, together with SG: Tee-to-Inexperienced (+3.23), SG: Method (+1.69), 3 Putt Avoidance (0) and Scoring Common (67.8). Little of that dominance ought to have come as a shock given it was merely a continuation of what Scheffler has been doing all season. In 2024, he leads the Tour in SG: Tee to Inexperienced (+2.401), SG: Method the Inexperienced (1.277), Scoring Common (68.645) and Birdie Common (4.88).
“A reasonably enjoyable 12 months,” is how Scheffler, in his sometimes unassuming model, summed up his $63 million season Sunday. Makes you surprise what would qualify as a very enjoyable 12 months. To recap, Scheffler received his second inexperienced jacket, defended his Gamers title, received 5 different signature occasions, together with the Tour Championship, which gave him FedEx Cup honors. He additionally received a gold medal in Paris and, oh yeah, turned a father.
Scheffler is making the sport — and successful — look simple. He’ll let you know neither of these items is true. In reality, he stated as a lot Sunday. “I’d say that golf very hardly ever feels simple,” he stated. “I see loads of the gamers out right here once they have nice rounds, it appears really easy and then you definately get carried out and also you speak to them about it and it’s by no means actually that simple.”
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That’s very true when expectations are excessive, as they’ve been for Scheffler all 12 months lengthy. Successful could beget successful, but it surely additionally begets the idea from others that extra wins are coming. Certainly, it’s one factor to prevail if you’re cruising below the radar and shoot a cool Sunday 64 to sneak up on the pack and nab, say, your third-career title. It’s fairly one other if you’re the prohibitive betting favourite, going through the media after each spherical and anticipated to be within the hunt. That’s a unique type of stress that few gamers have needed to face.
Ask Justin Thomas, who early final week stated of Scheffler: “I believe it’s simply underrated how properly he’s enjoying for [people] anticipating [him] to play that properly. I don’t suppose folks perceive how tough it’s to win if you’re anticipated to win or when each single particular person expects you to play properly, and also you count on you to play properly after which to nonetheless play properly. I believe expectations are one thing, it’s very, very laborious to handle. It really is simply as a lot of a expertise as having the ability to management your distance together with your wedges or flight a driver or hit it far — no matter it’s, is having the ability to keep current, keep within the second.”
Thomas stated that amongst his Tour brethern nobody is healthier at executing these psychological gymnastics than Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, who received two majors this 12 months.
“It’s very laborious to elucidate, but it surely’s so laborious to do typically,” continued Thomas, who himself is aware of a bit one thing about successful in bunches (in 2017 he received 5 instances, together with a significant). “It’s typically even tougher if you’re enjoying that properly as a result of it’s simple to suppose like, properly, if I maintain enjoying like this, I’m going to win this event, I’m going to win the following event and the following one versus really — I imply, Tiger all the time talked about it, each shot’s a very powerful shot you’ve ever hit in your life, and after you hit that one, you go do it once more and subsequent factor you understand you’re like oh, I received once more. That’s a tough factor to do. To me, that’s been probably the most spectacular factor from Scottie.”
No argument right here.
