World number one Scottie Scheffler insisted he was unsatisfied with a season which had produced two wins and an incredible run of consistent golf.
Scheffler successfully defended his title in the WM Phoenix Open in February and also won the prestigious Players Championship in March, while his worst finish in the whole of 2023 so far was a tie for 12th in the Genesis Invitational.
The former Masters champion has also not finished worse than fifth in his last six starts, a run which includes being runner-up in the US PGA Championship and third in the US Open.
“I’m very proud of how I’ve been so consistent,” Scheffler said ahead of the £7million Genesis Scottish Open at Renaissance Club, where he missed the cut 12 months ago.
“I would obviously like to win more. But if I win eight times, I want to win nine. If I win nine, I want to win 10. Golf is one of those games that you’re never really satisfied. You’re never really satisfied with the results of things and you always want more.
“I want to win every time I tee it up. You win once and you want to win twice. It’s funny, as a kid, if you think you win once on the PGA Tour you’ll be satisfied. And you win once and it’s pretty fun and you want to win again and the cycle continues.”
Scheffler is unsurprisingly ranked first in numerous categories on the PGA Tour this season, including strokes gained off the tee, approaching the green and greens in regulation, but he is ranked a lowly 131st in putting.
“I think that it’s all just perception,” the 27-year-old said. “I’m not going to let what you guys think about my golf game affect how I think of my golf game. I believe that I’m a very good putter and everything returns to the average.
“If you’re hitting the ball as good as I have been in the past year, it’s very, very difficult to make all the putts. I feel like the things I’ve been working on to improve have been working significantly.
“As my “putting struggles” have continued in y’alls’ minds, I’ve gotten back to number one in the world and I’ve had a bunch of top-five finishes. Granted, if I can make a few more putts, those would have been more wins.
“But at the end of the day, I’m proud of tournaments this year and playing solid golf and that’s what I’m working on.”
Eight of the world’s top 10 are in the field for the Scottish Open, including three-time major winner Jordan Spieth and defending champion Xander Schauffele, who equalled the lowest score in major history with an opening 62 in last month’s US Open.
Schauffele survived a rollercoaster final round 12 months ago to secure his third win in succession, with Spieth getting to within a shot of the lead in the final round before making a double bogey on the 14th.
“I really enjoyed this tournament last year,” Spieth said. “We had the wind blowing significantly all four days, including a tough final round where I had a chance to win.
“Something about the golf course fit my eye so I’m just trying to pick up where I left off here. I really enjoy coming to Scotland, it’s one of my favourite places in the world to play golf.
“You can’t even count on two hands how many phenomenal golf courses there are. There’s four or five in a five-mile radius here, so I went out last night and played North Berwick just trying to have a lot of fun while we’re in the middle of working.
“My coach Cameron and his son were going to go out and play, I thought I would just go out there maybe with a few clubs and chip and putt and walk with them. I ended up taking my bag and played all 18 holes.
“Played the first few and was like, I can’t really quit on nine like you can in the States and I know that the last five, six holes are just incredible.
“It was just a fun evening to play golf. We don’t really get a lot of run, random rounds on the road and that was one to take advantage of.”
A closer look at the hot streak of world number one Scottie Scheffler
Scottie Scheffler claimed his fourth win in five events on Monday when the weather-delayed RBC Heritage concluded at Hilton Head.
That run includes a second Masters title and has seen the world number one extend his sizeable lead over Rory McIlroy at the top of the rankings.
Here, the PA news agency looks at some of the facts and figures around Scheffler’s streak and how they compare to previous runs.
What makes Scheffler’s streak so impressive?Winning any event on the PGA Tour is difficult, but Scheffler has claimed two of the biggest in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship, a major championship at Augusta National and the RBC Heritage, which boasted a stronger than usual field after being elevated to a Signature Event this season. Victory at Sawgrass made Scheffler the first player ever to win back-to-back Players titles. His only “failure” was a tie for second in the Houston Open.
Has this been done before?Scheffler is the first player to win four times in five starts on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods, who did so at the end of 2007 and again to start 2008. He is also the third player in the last 30 years – after Woods and Vijay Singh (2004) – to win or finish runner-up in five consecutive starts on the PGA Tour. With many players taking a break after winning a major, Scheffler is also the first to win a PGA Tour event the week after claiming a green jacket since Bernhard Langer in 1985.
How much has Scheffler earned?Scheffler has banked an average of £3.17million for each of his four victories and “only” £448,000 for his five-way tie for second behind Stephan Jaeger in the Houston Open. The total sum of £13.14m would place Scheffler 145th on the PGA Tour’s career earnings list and he is closing in on the single-season record of £17million he set last year. In comparison, Woods won nine times on the PGA Tour in 2000, including three major titles, and never finished worse than 23rd in 20 starts. His prize money totalled £7.4m.
Does the world ranking reflect Scheffler’s dominance?In a word, yes. Ahead of the Genesis Invitational in mid-February, Rory McIlroy could have become world number one by winning at Riviera with Scheffler finishing third or worse. Now, Scheffler has more than double the total and average points of McIlroy, while the average points gap between the top two (7.6493) is bigger than that between McIlroy and the players tied for 4,123st in the standings.
So is Scheffler the most dominant player in world golf?Not quite. Hours before Scheffler completed his victory in Hilton Head, fellow American Nelly Korda had wrapped up a fifth consecutive win on the LPGA Tour by claiming her second major title in the Chevron Championship. Korda’s winning streak matches that of Nancy Lopez in 1978 and Annika Sorenstam in 2004-05, although her bid for an unprecedented sixth straight win will have to wait after she cited exhaustion when pulling out of this week’s event in Los Angeles. While Scheffler has earned £13.14m from his last five events, Korda’s five wins have been worth £1.94m.
Scottie Scheffler matches Tiger Woods achievement with fourth win in five
Masters champion Scottie Scheffler hailed his mental strength after making it four wins in five starts with a rain-delayed victory at the RBC Heritage.
Scheffler returned to Hilton Head on Monday morning holding a five-stroke lead with three holes to play after a storm halted proceedings on Sunday.
The world number one dropped a shot at the last to finish 19 under par, three shots ahead of fellow American Sahith Theegala, with Patrick Cantlay and Wyndham Clark another stroke back.
Scheffler is the first player to win a PGA Tour event the week after claiming the Green Jacket since Bernhard Langer in 1985 and the first to win four times in five starts on the US-based circuit since Tiger Woods in 2007-08.
Each of Scheffler’s last seven wins have come with at least eight of the world’s top 10 in the field and he is the third player in the last 30 years – after Woods and Vijay Singh – to win or finish runner-up in five consecutive starts on the PGA Tour.
“I was able to go home for a couple days and celebrate,” Scheffler said.
“I didn’t really put much thought into it. I had committed to playing the tournament here, it was part of the plan, so we stuck to the plan.
“I talked about it at the beginning of the week – I didn’t show up here just to have some sort of ceremony and have people tell me congratulations. I came here with a purpose, got off to a slow start but after that played some really nice golf.
“I do have fairly high expectations for myself and when I show up at tournaments, I try to do my best.
“I’ve talked a lot about kind of the preparation and what it takes for me to show up on a first tee ready to go, and I feel like I’ve been putting in the work and been playing some good golf, and it’s nice to be seeing some results for that with wins.
“On the course, I think the last month or so I’ve been as good mentally as I have in a long time and I think that’s why I am seeing some of the results.
“This week could be a good example of starting off and looking at the leaderboard on Thursday and everybody is just making birdie after birdie and I’m sitting there over par and I’ve had a shank on the day.
“I just did my best to stay patient and wait until I got hot.
“Had a nice finish to the round on Thursday and then had a really solid Friday where I felt like I played better than I scored, and then I had Saturday where I just played some really good golf.”
Rory McIlroy carded a final-round 74 to slip into a tie for 33rd.
Scottie Scheffler five strokes ahead with weather forcing a Monday finish
Scottie Scheffler has a five stroke lead with just three holes to play after rain halted play in the RBC Heritage on Sunday.
The US Open champion and world number one continued his great form at Hilton Head in South Carolina on the fourth day of the tournament, hitting an eagle and two birdies across 15 holes.
A storm stopped play for two and a half hours with darkness forcing a finish on Monday.
Fellow American Wyndham Clark had a strong day through his 18 holes, moving into second place with eight birdies and an eagle, but two bogeys and a double bogey stopped him from further encroaching on Scheffler’s lead.
Clark is tied with American’s Patrick Cantlay and J T Poston, who have one hole left to play and Sahith Theegala, who has three holes left to play.
Scheffler is looking for his fourth win in five starts.
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