It’s been a good year for Scottie Scheffler (Titleist Pro V1), but not a great year—if you judge it by his career.
His win in the FedEx St. Jude Championship was only his second of the season. In recent years, he’s won several tournaments in a season, including six last year, and eight the year before, nine if you include the Olympics.
And that’s the thing: we expect Scheffler to dominate. It was considered a slump that he had gone 16 tournaments without a win after opening the season with a victory.
But it’s not like he’d been in a slump. He’s had five runnerup finishes, two thirds and two fourths. That’s impressive.
But people were wondering if he’d win another tournament this year.
That’s the standard that we hold the world’s top-ranked player to—and maybe that’s not fair.
Let’s put this into perspective: He is only $1.4 million from surpassing the all-time career earnings owned by Tiger Woods (Bridgestone Tour B X). It stands at $120,999,166). Not only will Scheffler shatter it, he will obliterate it. Woods has been atop since February 2000.
Scheffler, who has totalled more than $20.5 million this season, has only become a presence on the PGA Tour in the last five years.
So you have to put in context his season and his career for that matter.
We should be viewing what he’s done with amazement. The fact he goes about his business with humility and does not talk about his accomplishments in comparison to Woods says a lot about this generational superstar. You don’t see him in a lot of commercials, notwithstanding he is a Nike ambassador, as is his caddie.
Nor do you hear much from him. He does not criticize players or comment on the politics of the sport.
In many ways I consider Scheffler the Tom Brady of golf. Brady was not expected to be as good or great as he became when he began his pro career. He worked at it.
The same can be true as Scheffler. It really wasn’t until he hooked up with Scott that Scheffler found the formula to succeed. Scott had already been an accomplished caddie before he and Scheffler joined together in November in 2021.
The rest, as they say, is history.
BOBBY MAC INJURY: It’s a good thing Robert MacIntyre (Titleist Pro V1x) had already qualified for the BMW Championship. He came into the FedEx St. Jude Championship sitting 36th overall, so essentially he could have skipped the tournament and still be eligible for this week’s BMW Championship. But he played, his first action since The Open, and shot 12-over par and withdrew prior to the start of the second round with a knee injury, according to the PGA Tour.
It will be interesting to see if MacIntyre plays this week to give himself a chance top qualify for the Tour Championship.
Then again, will it really matter?
KOIVUN’S RUN ENDS: Jackson Koivun (Titleist Pro V1) had his season end when he tied for 24th in the FedEx St. Jude Championship. That did not advance the flashy rookie to the BMW Championship. But he still earned $162,000 and has banked almost $2 million in only seven tournaments since turning pro.
