Scottie Scheffler has been leading the world rankings for sixteen weeks. That alone justifies his favorite role at St Andrews in Scotland, where the anniversary edition of the oldest major in the world takes place from Thursday.
Tiger Woods took 252 days to climb to the top of the world rankings in 1996 after his first win on the PGA Tour. Scheffler, who has only been a full-fledged player on the American tour since 2019, shattered that record this year. He won the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February and was the new number 1 in the world exactly 42 days after that. In between were two more wins on the PGA Tour.
In the first tournament after gaining that status, he won his most beautiful title: The Masters at Augusta National. Scheffler has already earned more than $13 million in prize money this season.
Only 25 players have ascended the throne since the world rankings came into effect in 1986 and Scheffler still has a few weeks to go to overtake Lee Westwood (22 weeks) in that mini-ranking as number 15. But the experts are convinced that it does not stop there.
Woods’ record – 683 weeks – may be too ambitious, but the fact that the New Jersey golfer, described in the media as somewhat colorless, will continue the battle for power for a while is anything but a bold prediction.
Impressive statistics
On March 27, Scheffler relieved Spaniard Jon Rahm after a reign of 43 weeks. Interesting detail: the general public got to know him six months earlier when he was rookie in the Ryder Cup chopped up that same Rahm.
In that mutual duel in the biennial battle between the United States and Europe, the American birdied on the first four holes and dealt a sensitive blow to the Spaniard, who could no longer recover from the blow. Scheffler is also part of the ‘Club of 59’, players who broke the magical 60-stroke barrier in a round on the PGA Tour.
Scheffler’s stats are impressive, his playing is too, but his ‘appearance’ isn’t (yet). He looks and talks like your average American tour player. From the age of six, he grew up in Dallas, where mother Diane was offered a good job at a law firm. Father Scott was the househusband and took care of three daughters in addition to Scottie. Scheffler learned to play golf at the Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas. He later won the US Junior, his greatest achievement as an amateur. As a 17-year-old, that earned him an invitation to a tournament on the PGA Tour. In it, he made a hole-in-one and finished 22nd. After turning pro in 2018, he stayed under the radar for a few years.
For the time being, Scheffler cannot be caught on any irregularities. He prefers not to get involved in the discussion about the LIV Tour, the competitive golf tour financed with Saudi Arabian money. “I prefer to stay in the background. Guys like Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas are better representatives in this area.”
Convinced Christian
After The Masters, the word ‘bore‘ used in the reporting of Scheffler’s triumph. Jokes were made about the traditional Champions Dinner in 2023, of which the defending champion can compose the menu. “Macaroni with cheese, steak. Beans and coleslaw. That will be the meal,” said American golf influencer Paige Spiranec.
Scheffler confessed after his Augusta National victory that he had cried like a child the morning before his final round, nervously, but that his wife Meredith had calmed him down with the words “that his fate was in God’s hands.” She also whispered to him that if he made ten strokes too many on those last eighteen holes or never won again, God would have wanted it that way.
Scheffler is a convinced Christian. “We have no control over our lives. God has given me this gift and I use it in honor of his glory.” He doesn’t take it as superstition that he always marks the ball on the green with the same coin, one that shows the logo of the Dallas Cowboys, the American football team from the city where he grew up “If I lose the marker I’ll probably just use a different coin. Until then, I’ll put this in my pocket.”
Scheffler hardly has any idiosyncrasies. He suffers from a fear of heights, thirteen is his lucky number and pineapple is his favorite fruit. He considers Michael Jordan to be the greatest athlete of all time, but his childhood hero was New York Yankees baseball player Derek Jeter.
As a child, Scheffler always wore long pants and a polo shirt when he went to school. Young Scottie was bullied for it, but he wanted to be a golfer and thought it would be a good idea to dress that way. For someone who now often says “not to look too much into the future and to live in the moment,” that must have been one of his most startling acts off the golf course.