Can we now compare Scottie Scheffler with Tiger Woods?

Nobody I know thinks Scottie Scheffler is better than Tiger Woods. Nobody that anyone knows thinks Scottie Scheffler is better than Tiger Woods.

But with each birdie he drops and each trophy he picks up, these names are spoken in the same sentence on a more regular basis.

It was as if the tall Texan deliberately gave Jon Rahm some hope in the final round of the 2025 PGA Championship, before the Spaniard lit his scorecard on fire on the back nine, and Scheffler remained an image of calm relentlessness.

Scheffler converted a three-shot lead at Quail Hollow like we all expected him to. It was his third major win, all of which have come in convincing fashion, to say the absolute least. He made both of his wins at the Masters in 2022 and 2024 look like a walk in the park.

And his performance at the PGA Championship was similar. His typical hunched trudge to each tee box and green took him to crucial birdies on holes 10, 14 and 15 to seal the deal. Only Woods and Greg Norman have held the coveted World No.1 spot for longer.

If you look at Scheffler’s 2024 season, and his continued form into 2025, which has seen him win the CJ Cup Byron Nelson by eight shots, the PGA Championship by five shots and the Memorial Tournament by four shots, it is Tiger-like. There is no question. And the Tiger comparisons will no doubt reignite.

Now, he has a four-shot lead after 54 holes at The Open – the major that I thought he would win last and would struggle to win the most. To play like he has on the Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush is quite frankly astonishing. Two Green Jackets – great. A PGA win at Quail Hollow – fine, but just another PGA Tour event in essence. Winning the Claret Jug at a top championship venue – goodness me, we are heating up now.

The grand slam is in sight.

Last year, he won The Players (the PGA Tour’s flagship event), the Memorial, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the RBC Heritage – all of the events golf fans would surely agree stand tallest in prestige on the US circuit. Scheffler also won the Masters again.

He won the Travelers Championship to make that six trophies before the start of July. He became the fourth player since 1983 to win six times in a PGA Tour season, and the first since Woods.

Scheffler won the Olympic Gold Medal and the season-ending Tour Championship, then Tiger’s Hero Challenge in the Bahamas. He will do well to top again what has been a seismic year, in which he was also much fancied to win the PGA Championship were he not arrested on the morning of the second round, but top it he might in seasons to come.

But while I thoroughly enjoy watching Scheffler pound the opposition into submission, we must note this brutal type of dominance in golf isn’t something only Woods has achieved.

A good handful of players, some of them Scheffler’s contemporaries, have touched greatness like he has, but never sustained it as long as The Cat did. We don’t know if Scheffler will sustain it because we aren’t time travellers. There is no problem with this, but when we discuss levels of dominance, there might be a touch of recency bias to Scheffler’s play.

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Tiger Woods vs Scottie Scheffler stats are still incomparable

In 2015, Jordan Spieth won five times, which included the US Open and the Masters. Is this a better season than Scheffler’s seven-trophy haul with one major in 2024? It’s a comparison to be made, and we might be making another one by the end of Scheffler’s 2025 season.

Jason Day won five times, including the PGA Championship in the same year. Justin Thomas emulated Day’s record two years later. It isn’t unheard of that players in the modern era can catch fire and stamp down wins like numbers on a bingo card.

This is the recency bias. It is easy to forget these fantastic seasons from three fantastic players, all because they are not as fantastic as they used to be. Golf is tough and unpredictable, and there are no guarantees that success is sustained.

Honourable mentions must go to Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka too. In terms of where players stand in history based on majors alone, this pair, with 11 majors between them, represent a benchmark Scheffler must still go some way to reaching.

This is not to throw cold water on Scheffler and his achievements. They are truly world-class from a class act himself, but we need time to discover if this episode of dominance becomes a series. In the meantime, you should cite the brilliance of Vijay Singh or Nick Price before skipping the record to the best résumé in the charts.

Singh of Fiji won nine times in 2004, including the PGA Championship, and this was when Woods was strutting around in his pomp. Price of Zimbabwe won six times in 1994 and rattled off a PGA Championship of his own and The Open Championship too.

There is no doubt Scheffler would take great pride in being compared to these international icons. If nothing else, this column recognises the vast levels of talent we’ve been treated to in the past and the present that aren’t called Tiger Woods.

“Anytime you can be compared to Tiger I think is really special, but, I mean, the guy stands alone I think in our game,” Scheffler once said.

The 15-time major champion won six times in one season twice, seven times once, eight times twice, and nine times once. It isn’t fair to compare anyone to this man. His levels of dominance were quite frankly daft.

For now, let’s keep enjoying Scottie. He can sit with Singh, Price and the rest for now until the future tells us otherwise.

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