Are we entering the Scottie Scheffler era?
The PGA Tour will be spending the next two weeks in Texas at this weekend's Houston Open to be followed by the long running Texas Open in San Antonio. After that the pros are in Augusta Georgia for the playing of the Masters, the first of golf's four major championships.
The game has always reached its heights of popularity when golf had specifically designated eras and superstars. The post World War I era was dominated by Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, and amateur great Bobby Jones. Hagen, Sarazen, and Jones moved the needle with the fans of the game. At a time when there were just three majors, Hagen won 11 grand slam titles, Sarazen captured seven majors, and Jones won six professional majors alongside six amateur majors (the U.S. Amateur and the British Amateur).. Spanning both ends of World War II was the Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, and Byron Nelson era. Now there were four majors with the addition of the Masters. Snead won seven of them, Hogan took home nine major titles, and Nelson, who retired early from the game, won five majors. In the 1960s golf had a “Big Three” that included Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player. Arnie won seven majors, Jack was the all-time leader with 18 majors, while Gary won nine of them.
It was only in the modern era that one single, solitary golfer dominated the game. Beginning in 1997, Tiger Woods began a run in which he would accumulate 15 major titles with 14 of them coming between 1997 and 2008. Although he didn't win his first major title until he was 34 years old, Phil Mickelson would win six grand slam titles.
Nowadays we seem to be in an era where the top players win a handful of majors or slightly less. Brooks Koepka has won five major titles while Rory McIlory has won four of them and Jordan Spieth has added three major trophies to his mantle. Rory needs just a Masters win to reach the career grand slam while Jordan needs to win the PGA Championship to do the same. There are also golfers such as Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, and Justin Thomas who have a pair of major titles. Nonetheless we seem to be in a one-hit wonder era with major champions such as Wyndham Clark, Brian Harmon, Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Reed, and others. They have their one weekend of major glory. Winning a major is quite an accomplishment. Winning more than one opens the door to a Hall of Fame career.
Lately Scottie Scheffler has been the hottest golfer on the planet. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in early March and followed it up with a Palmer-like come from behind win at the prestigious Players Championship. Scheffler won the Masters in 2022 and as we enter the major championship season of 2024, the ongoing
question is whether or not Scottie can add more major titles to his impressive golfing resume.
It was merely five seasons ago that Scottie Scheffler was the PGA Tour's rookie of the year. He was also the breakout star of the Ryder Cup team at Whistling Straits in 2021. Some five months later the world of golf started taking note of Scottie Scheffler as a winner of golf titles. He won four times in a nine week span, finishing atop the leader board at the Phoenix Open, the Arnold Palmer, the Match Play, and the 2022 Masters. Last season he won at Phoenix for a second time and also won his first Players Championship. As earlier mentioned, he already has those two wins this year at the Arnold Palmer and the Players.
When Scottie Scheffler is on, he is close to unbeatable. Earlier this month he won the Arnold Palmer by five strokes. He shot a final round 64 at the Players to run down an all-star leader board featuring Wyndham Clark, Brian Harmon, and Xander Schauffele. Always an outstanding ball striker, anytime Scheffler gets his putter heated up, he is a dominant player.
Only 27 years old and just entering his prime, Scheffler has been a winner on every level. As a youngster he won 75 times on the PGA Junior Tour and capped it off with a victory in the 2013
United States Junior Championship. As a 17 year old he made the cut at the Byron Nelson and qualified for a pair of
U.S. Opens. Playing collegiate golf at the University of Texas, Scottie won three Big 12 championships. Upon turning professional, he won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour and was its player of the year.
With the aging of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, there has been a lot of parity on today's PGA Tour. It could be time for a new era in golf and the one golfer currently on tour who seems most capable of doing so is Scottie Scheffler. We'll learn a whole lot more next month as he attempts to win a second green jacket as the champion of the Masters. It just might be the beginning of the Scottie Scheffler era.