Scottie Scheffler has hailed Tiger Woods' return as 'miraculous' as the 15-time Major champion prepares for his return to professional golf at this week's Hero World Challenge.
Woods has not hit a ball in competition since withdrawing from the Masters in April. He went on to have ankle surgery later that month and has finally been cleared to return to action five months later.
Scheffler, who will be making his own return to competition after a near two-month break following the Ryder Cup, admitted he was stunned at the state of Woods' game when watching his fellow American on the range earlier in the week.
"I love looking down the range and seeing him hit balls and hearing that sound. He's still got the same sound, which is amazing," the World No.1 said at his pre-tournament press conference.
"I feel rusty coming off two months without a tournament. He goes almost a year at a time and he comes back and he plays fine golf. For him to come back and make cuts in majors and do what he has been doing in his comebacks, it's really hard to comprehend until you do it out here.
"Getting back into competitive golf is something you can't really simulate at home, it's so much different. For him to be able to do it like he has been doing it for so many years is pretty miraculous."
Scheffler's rise to the top of men's golf has come during a period when Woods has spent far too much time on the sidelines. Perhaps that is why the 27-year-old's first time playing with the Woods - at the 2020 Masters - sticks out so fondly in his mind.
"The first time I played with him was the Masters we had during COVID. It was in the fall and he wasn't really at the top of his game. It was the day he made a 10 on NNo. 12 at Augusta," Scheffler recalled.
"He's just different than everybody else. Anybody else would kind of say, oh, whatever, I've already won this tournament four, five times, whatever he has and just kind of pack it in for the last six holes.
"He turns around and he birdies five out of the last six. He hit still to me or still to this day it's the purest iron shot I've ever seen on 16. He got mad still, and he's so competitive and he's so driven and he's so good, he's different. He's different than the rest of us."
'He was pretty unstoppable to start the year'
Neither may have won since April but Scheffler and Jon Rahm remain the two standout candidates for the PGA Tour's player of the year award.
Scheffler racked up wins at the Phoenix Open and Players as well as three top-ten finishes in Majors but believes the Spaniard should get the award for after his triumph at the Masters as well as three other PGA Tour titles.
"I think with the way Jon played at the beginning of the year with his four wins and one of them being a major [he deserves to win]," Scheffler explained.
"I mean, we play this game to win. Yeah, the consistency's great, but you want to win golf tournaments and Jon was able to do that at such a high clip at the beginning of the year.
"If he finished off the year that way, it probably wouldn't even be a discussion. But since it was six, seven months ago, eight months ago, whatever it is, people aren't thinking about it as much, but he was pretty unstoppable to start the year."
'My mechanics are in a good place'
Despite his consistent 2023, there was one part of Scheffler's game that stuck out like a sore thumb: his putting. The American ranked first in total strokes gained as well as strokes gained off the tee and in approach to the green. On the green, however, Scheffler ranked a miserable 162nd on Tour.
The World No.1 has begun working with renowned putting coach Phil Kenyon towards the latter half of the year and believes he is starting to see improvements with his flat stick.
"I saw him two full days in Dallas before Ryder Cup and since then he's come to Dallas one for time for two days to work, and he's here this week. A lot of it's been done over video," he said.
"Putting's one of those things, I think what Phil has helped me the most with is just getting a clear mind. Right now I feel like my mechanics are in a good place to where I can use my athletic ability instead of using it more as a crutch, kind of overusing my athletic ability.
"Phil has helped me get into place where my mechanics are good enough where I can kind of turn off and use my athletic ability to kind of help, whereas now my 7 swing, I'm in a place where my mechanics are good enough to where I can use my hands."
