After Wyndham Clark won his first major at the 2023 U.S. Open, the pressure on himself intensified—and so did his admiration for Scottie Scheffler. 

“For me, it has been frustrating,” Clark said of following up his major win with positive results. “It’s funny how you have success and you win a major, you win some tournaments and then everyone expects you to do that all the time. Scottie is doing that all the time, and it’s very impressive, but no one else is really doing that.”

Scheffler won his first major at the 2022 Masters and has since won nine more times, including seven in 2024 with another Masters triumph. That’s the most wins in one season since Tiger Woods won seven in 2007. Scheffler, Woods and Vijay Singh are the only players to win seven or more times during a single season in the modern PGA Tour era. 

Scheffler hasn’t won an official event since August’s Tour Championship. However, as the world’s No. 1-ranked player since May 2023, some of the sport’s most notable names are in awe of how he handles himself. 

“Look, it’s one thing to get to the No. 1 spot in the world, and then it’s another to stay there,” Rory McIlroy said Wednesday at TPC Sawgrass. “I think to stay there almost requires more commitment. I think that’s what Scottie does so well. He’s so committed to his craft, and he’s always working. He’s always trying to get better, and we’re all trying to get better to keep up with him. 

“But he’s obviously handled it amazingly well. He seems like he doesn’t really care about anything else apart from just trying to be a good golfer and doing the best that he can. He's got a great attitude towards it.” 

Scheffler is one of the best ball strikers golf has seen. Last season, he was first on Tour strokes-gained total, tee-to-green and approach, and second in strokes-gained off the tee. This year, a little less than two months since returning from offseason hand surgery, he’s only inside the top 10 in strokes-gained total (third). But many expect him to climb back up the ladder. 

“I think it's hard to play—at least in my opinion, I think it's hard to play with him and be like, ‘oh, I want to play more like Scottie,’” Justin Thomas said. “It’s like, no duh, who wouldn’t want to hit a lot of the fairways and a lot of the greens and be the best ball striker statistically on planet Earth for the last couple years?”

Even Thomas, a two-time major champion and former world No. 1, has taken notes from watching Scheffler up close. 

“Just playing with him in that situation (at December’s Hero World Challenge) was—it sucked because he beat me and I didn't play well,” Thomas said. “But it was a learning experience for me to just watch how he plotted his way around, and I feel like very similar to what I’ve done many times when I’ve won and how I’ve handled it mentally. I think that’s what he does better than anybody else.”

How does Scheffler keep himself cool, calm and collected as he tries to maintain the throne of world No. 1? 

“The No. 1 ranking is a great thing,” said Scheffler, who is looking to three-peat at The Players Championship. “It’s a nice accolade to get from some of the results that I’ve had the last few years in tournaments, but at the end of the day, I’m not resting on it. Like when I go home, I don’t think about being the best player in the world. My life at home isn't any different. I practice at the same golf courses. I have the same friends. I have the same coach. Things for me at home don’t really change based upon good or bad golf, and I kind of like that stability.” 

And that mentality has made the 28-year-old golf's new benchmark.

“Scottie is the closest thing to Tiger I think any of us have seen,” Clark said. “He not only is the No. 1 player in the world, he embraces it, and he shows up every week and almost wins or is in contention or does win. It’s very impressive. 

“I think he’s kind of the mark we’re all trying to get to, and I have nothing but respect for everything that Scottie is doing, and I love that it doesn’t affect him. It hasn’t gone to his head. He just continues to be Scottie and goes about his way.”


This article was originally published on www.si.com as 'The Closest Thing to Tiger': Scottie Scheffler Admiration Universal Among PGA Tour's Best.