After starting the Golf Legends series at Today’s Lines with the two most recent generational talents, our next profile looks at the current world’s best golfer, Scottie Scheffler. He is having an amazing year with six PGA tournaments, including the Masters and Players Championship.
Let’s take a closer look at his career’s milestones before betting on him at top-rated sportsbooks.
How Did It All Begin for Scottie?
Like most of the world’s top golf professionals, Scottie Scheeler’s interest in golf was piqued at the precocious age of three while living in New Jersey. A couple of years later, the family moved to Texas, where Scheffler was taught by Randy Smith, the coach of Open Champion, and Justin Leonard.
His breakthrough win came at the U.S. Amateur of 2013 at the age of 17, and he went on to equal Jordan Spieth’s record of three individual state titles in successive years.
Early Years as a Professional
In 2019, Scheffler won twice early in his professional career on the Korn Ferry Tour to take their “Player of the Year” honors and gain his playing privileges on the PGA Tour.
2020 saw Scheffler being named “Rookie of the Year” on the PGA Tour, which qualified him for the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. In the fall of that same year, he joined forces with Ted Scott as his caddy. However, he remained winless in the big league despite numerous near misses.
Reflecting on 2022, Scheffler experienced a breakthrough year, rapidly ascending to world #1. His collaboration with Ted Scott, Bubba Watson’s former caddy, yielded immediate success early in the year.
He broke his maiden tag at the Phoenix Open, which was followed by a win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and World Match Play as he won three times in five events.
Leading into the Masters, he had the added confidence of becoming the world No.1, and with a three-stroke victory, he had won four times in those six events to put daylight between him and the rest at the top of the world Rankings.
2023 Saw Scheffler Putting Woes Begin!
Surprisingly, after his 2022 Green Jacket at Augusta National, Scheffler did not manage to win another tournament despite an elite level of consistency.
That appeared behind him in the early months of 2023, when he defended the Phoenix and won his first Players Championship. However, his season fell away from a winning perspective after those wins, and it became glaringly obvious that his putting was letting him down.
The PGA Tour stats illustrated the problem, as he ranked 162nd in strokes gained putting, as opposed to the remarkable ball-striking that saw him rank 1st in Strokes Gained off the tee and Strokes Gained in Approach, two of the most important metrics in professional golf.
Why the Current 2024 Season Is Tiger Wood Level for Scottie?
As mentioned in the opening paragraph, Scottie Scheffler has already won six times this season on the PGA Tour, which is form-likened to the halcyon days of Tiger Woods domination.
The season started quietly for the twenty-eight-year-old, as the putting woes continued. However, a tip from Rory McIlroy before the Arnold Palmer Invitational has seen Scheffler’s season catch fire. The tip was to try a mallet-style putter and there was an immediate palpable improvement in his game, resulting in a five-shot victory at Bay Hill.
Scottie has gone on to win six times in ten tournaments despite his seamless progress being interrupted after round 1 of the PGA Championship. Arriving at Valhalla on the back of four wins in his last five, the disruption was no fault of his own. After the tragic death of a golf marshal in the contraflow outside the course, Scheffler was unaware and tried to drive through, but an overzealous police officer got in his way.
Scheffler is a deeply religious individual and the subsequent charges that have since been dropped would have been upsetting for him. With those charges dropped, he has resumed normal service with his latest victory at the Travelers two weeks ago by defeating his good friend Tom Kim in a sudden death play-off.
Like in 2023, Scottie leads all those ball-striking categories on the PGA Tour. However, with his strokes gained putting stat currently at 82nd, we can take it for granted that when Scottie Scheffler putts well, he wins!
