Portrush (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Scottie Scheffler began his week at the British Open pondering “the point” of his pursuit of perfection but still cruised away from the field to lift the Claret Jug for the first time. Now a four-time major winner, the unassuming American’s game is making waves in a dominant spell golf has not seen since Tiger Woods’ heyday. Scheffler’s four-stroke victory at Royal Portrush was already his fourth this year, despite a slow start after a freak hand injury caused by broken glass when he was making pasta.
Since the Houston Open in March, the 29-year-old has not finished outside the top 10 in 11 tournaments — rubber-stamping his status as the world’s best. That run has included major wins at both the PGA Championship and British Open to take him within a US Open victory of joining the six men to have won the career Grand Slam. Rory McIlroy was the latest to join that select club when he won the Masters in April. But even the world number two is blown away by Scheffler’s consistent excellence as McIlroy was unable to chase down the only man on the planet currently better with a club in his hand on home soil.
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“Scottie Scheffler is inevitable,” said McIlroy. “He’s just so solid. He doesn’t make mistakes.” Scheffler’s supremacy over the rest of the field has drawn comparisons to 15-time major champion Woods. Matt Fitzpatrick labelled his playing partner on Saturday “Tiger-like” and there are a raft of stats to back up that claim. He is the first player since Woods to surpass 100 consecutive weeks as world number one. Scheffler’s seven PGA Tour wins last year was the most since Woods in 2007 and he has also now become just the second player to win the British Open while ranked number one.
Behind that success is a relentless work ethic, even if it sometimes drives even Scheffler to wonder why he pushes himself to the max. “We work so hard for such little moments,” he said on the eve of the British Open. “I’m kind of a sicko; I love putting in the work. I love getting to practice. I love getting to live out my dreams. But at the end of the day, sometimes I just don’t understand the point.”
For those trying to catch him, the hard work appears well worth it. “At the start of this year, when we checked the stats, Scheffler was further ahead of number two in the world than I was at 15th or 16th to the number two,” said world number 14 Robert McIntyre. “He’s an exceptional player and a great guy, and works so hard.”
Scheffler’s dominance on the PGA Tour is beginning to show in his major record. His four majors have come in the last 16 events, a record which could have been even better but for a remarkable incident at last year’s PGA Championship, which checked his progress. The mild-mannered Scheffler was arrested on the morning of his second round for trying to work his way around a traffic jam outside the course. Despite being bundled into a police station and having his mugshot taken in an orange jumpsuit, he was released in time to make the tee and went on to shoot a five-under par 66.
The toll came the following day when his streak of 42 consecutive rounds of par or better came to an end and he finished in a tie for eighth. All charges were subsequently dropped and business was soon back to normal on the course too. He produced a blistering course-record 62 on the final day at Le Golf National to add Olympic gold to his list of honours in August and took home a record $62 million in prize money last year from his haul of victories on the PGA Tour.
© 2024 AFP
