On Saturday at The Open Championship, former caddy Jim 'Bones' Mackay made the strong assertion that Scottie Scheffler was as close to prime Tiger Woods as any player he'd ever seen, and closer than he thought anyone would ever get. That was before Scheffler went on to continue his dominance at Royal Portrush to maintain his 54-hole lead of four shots and win by the same margin, capturing his fourth major championship victories. And so, the Tiger comparisons only started with Bones.
Scheffler adds his Claret Jug for winning The Open to the Wanamaker from winning the PGA Championship earlier this year, marking the first time that he's won two major championships in a single season. However, that also puts him on a list with Tiger Woods and the elites in the history of golf. Scheffler is now just the sixth player ever to win two majors and finish in the Top 7 of the other two majors. It's the seventh time that's happened among the six players, though, because Woods did it twice, first in 2000 and then again in 2005.
Beyond that Scheffler now joins Tiger and Jack Nicklaus as the only three players to win four major championships by three strokes or more since The Masters was first played, per Justin Ray. Moreover, removing the Tiger Slam from 2000-01 for Woods (which does count, but is the most dominant golf that will ever be played) and looking at his prime from 2002-05, he and Scheffler played 79 and 81 events, respectively. Per Kyle Porter, Scheffler has 20 wins to Tiger's 19, both won four major championships, and both averaged about 2.8 strokes-gained per round. They've literally been parallel dominant at these peaks and around the same age ranges.
If that wasn't enough to shift the Scottie-Tiger comparisons into overdrive, though, one stat from the NBC broadcast will put it into full perspective.
Scottie Scheffler and Tiger Woods both had 1,197 days between first and fourth majors
That's right. Tiger Woods won the 1997 Masters Tournament by 12 strokes for his first major victory. 1,197 days later, he won the 2000 Open Championship at St. Andrews. Now we have Scheffler, who won The Masters in 2022 for his first win at a major. 1,197 days later, he just won the 2025 Open Championship, albeit at Royal Portrush.
It was the exact same number of days between Scheffler and Woods' first and fourth major championship wins. That's the type of stuff that'd be too crazy to believe if it wasn't an absolute fact.
Now, again, I don't believe that anyone is ever going to hit the high watermark that Tiger Woods set, specifically in 2000 when he won four consecutive major championships, concluding with the 2001 Masters. At the same time, with the increased level of competition combined with Woods' greatness, it truly felt like we would never see anyone even remotely as dominant as what Tiger once did. Scheffler might not be at the highest of highs, but in terms of the sustained peak, he's right on par with what Woods was doing, even if a little behind by some of the numbers.
One of Scheffler's biggest competition, Rory McIlroy, perhaps summed it up best when speaking with NBC after his round.
"He's been on a different level all week," McIlroy said. "He's been on a different level for the last two years. He is the bar that we're all trying to get to. Hats off to him. He's an unbelievable player, an incredible champion and a great person, too."
For years, golf fans and his peers called Tiger Woods "the needle" by which golf and other players measured themselves by. It's time now that we join Rory and start calling Scottie Scheffler what he is: "The bar".