Informal and understated, but ruthless.
Royal Portrush, with its dramatic terrain and imposing bunkers, couldn’t provide a more true hyperlinks take a look at.
However the 2025 Open Champion made the 18th the final, seemingly easy, stretch of his 72-hole stroll within the park.
Scottie Scheffler one way or the other managed to make headlines at The Open that have been fully devoid of any final-round anticipation or potential late twists and turns that the massive occasions usually deliver.
The world primary held a four-shot lead going into the ultimate spherical; it was all however sport, set and match.
No remaining pairing evaluation, no anticipation of the storied Main Championship going to the wire, only a readiness for the inevitable.
Scheffler dubbed comparisons in his dominance to that of Tiger Woods’ ‘foolish’, nevertheless it’s a truth, no golfer has made successful huge titles look as simple because the period of the GOAT.
The American’s feedback at first of the occasion fuelled mass interpretation with many labelling the four-time Main champion as unbothered, candid and even susceptible in his personal success.
However Scheffler proved he’s struck the proper stability: he’s accountable for his sport, his feelings and the usually uncompromisable mixture, being the world’s greatest golfer and the last word household man.
Scottie Scheffler was by no means going to entertain one of the best since Tiger narrative – however that doesn’t imply we gained’t.
Scottie & Tiger: 1197 days to Main No. 4
In trademark Tiger Woods model, he gained his first Main and a Inexperienced Jacket with a 12-stroke Masters win at Augusta Nationwide in 1997 – the primary of 15 Main crowns.
After his assertion maiden Main title, the 638-week World Quantity One rattled alongside to say his fourth crown on the Open in 2000 at St Andrews, simply 1197 days later.
For Scheffler, his first style of one among golf’s 4 most treasured prizes was additionally within the state of Georgia, a three-stroke win over huge rival Rory McIlroy to say a Masters Inexperienced Jacket at Augusta Nationwide in 2022.
Since that well-known win which proved to the doubters that he had it in him to recover from the road, Scheffler has been prolific, nearing 150 weeks because the world’s greatest and his critics, misplaced with out sight over the previous few years.
13 occasion wins have adopted, and it hasn’t been flashy, only a stage of consistency and resilience that many consider Woods was the final to own.
Scheffler gained a second Inexperienced Jacket two years later in 2024, however many puzzled whether or not he’d have the ability to carry his dominance of that 12 months into 2025.
He has.
It was a gradual begin to the 2025 season, taking him 4 months to say an occasion earlier than an eight-stroke victory on the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in Might at one among his residence programs in Dallas.
It was at all times a case of when, not if, and the win in his residence state of Texas kickstarted his 2025 season with a maiden PGA Championship five-stroke win at Quail Hole rapidly following.
His four-stroke win at Royal Portrush this weekend was his second Main of the season and introduced up a fourth Main of his profession, 1197 days after his first – we’ve heard that earlier than.
20 years later, and a exceptional resemblance arises
Although Scheffler downplays it, his present run from 2022 to 2025 on paper stands as essentially the most dominant stretch since Tiger Woods’ memorable spree from 2002 to 2005 – twenty years in the past.
That iconic mixture of sophistication and Sunday crimson twenty years in the past noticed an period of utter successful ruthlessness that many thought wouldn’t be seen once more.
79 occasions. 20 wins. 4 Majors. 2.8 SG per spherical.
The likes of Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson put collectively a interval of {golfing} excellence that noticed them every spend over two years on the summit of the rankings, however neither got here near matching Tiger Woods’ stretch.
Rise up, Scottie Scheffler.
81 occasions. 18 wins. 4 Majors. 2.8 SG per spherical.
An eerie symmetry precisely twenty years later. Are we seeing one of the best since Tiger Woods?
READ MORE: Scheffler the brand new Tiger, Ryder Cup clues and a brand new future Open winner discovered?
