Scottie Scheffler won The Masters title for the second time, and he did it in style, without ever looking like relinquishing control throughout the back nine of the final round at Augusta National.
That was the latest impressive performance in an incredible run of results, as the 27-year-old continues to show signs of emerging as the era’s most dominant player.
But just how good a run is Scheffler on at the moment? Data Golf has the answer, and has concluded that Scheffler’s current stretch is better than Vijay Singh in 2004 and only behind the all-conquering Tiger Woods of 2000.
The statistics experts have Scheffler second on the list of players at the “best of their best” over the last three decades based on their finest stretches of golf.
Scheffler is now #2 on our all-time (since 1995) list, barely edging out 2004 Vijay: pic.twitter.com/oCYFM9lBtpApril 15, 2024
It was apparent before The Masters that Scheffler was on a special run and at the Texas Children’s Houston Open two weeks before the Major, only a missed putt from a few feet ended a run of under par rounds at 28 - the longest since the PGA Tour began collecting data in 1963.
Meanwhile, in 2024, he now has three wins among five other top-10 finishes, with the only event to break that sequence being the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he finished T17.
The records are falling like dominoes elsewhere, too. In March, Scheffler became the first player to win back-to-back Players Championship titles, and his Masters win means he joined Woods as the only player to win both the TPC Sawgrass event and The Masters in the same season.
Scheffler’s four-shot win at Augusta National also meant he became the first player to win by three shots or more at the tournament twice in a three-year span (he won by three in 2022), while he is now the fourth youngest player to win it twice, behind legends of the game Jack Nicklaus, Woods and Seve Ballesteros.
It was also just Scheffler’s fifth appearance at The Masters, and only Horton Smith, way back in 1936, achieved a second title in fewer starts. Finally, before Scheffler’s win, only Woods had claimed more than one Major title as World No.1.
Given all that, it’s not surprising Scheffler ranks highly on Data Golf’s list, but for even more context, the player who Scheffler has leapfrogged, Fijian Singh, had a run that ended after his win at the 2004 Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but also included three other PGA Tour victories as well as a string of top-10 finishes.
Woods, of course, was in a different league entirely in 2000, and that best stretch, which Data Golf says ended after his win at the Bell Canadian Open, also included victories at the US Open, PGA Championship and The Open (while not part of the stretch, Woods then claimed The Masters title the year after to complete what became known as the Tiger Slam, when he held all four Major titles at the same time).
While Scheffler still has some way to go to get close to Woods’ achievements, his form must seem ominous for his opponents – and his place in the table shows he’s in very good company indeed.
