HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA | The question to Brian Harman was simple:
From the outside looking in, it appears as if the gap between Scottie Scheffler and the rest of professional golf is widening. Does Harman sense the same thing?
“Feels that way from the inside looking out, too,” said Harman, who finished second by one stroke to Scheffler at the Players Championship last month.
Scheffler’s second Masters victory in three years further cemented his grip atop the Official World Golf Ranking – he leads No. 2 Rory McIlroy by more than six points, the largest such lead since Tiger Woods’ glory days and as wide as the gap between McIlroy and No. 84 Billy Horschel – and he will tee it up here at the RBC Heritage on Thursday chasing his fourth win in five starts.
The one he didn’t win?
Scheffler missed a 5-footer on the 72nd hole in the Houston Open to lose to Stephan Jaeger by a stroke.
Go searching for the last time Scheffler posted an over-par score in any round in a PGA Tour event and it requires going back to the third round of the Tour Championship last August at East Lake – 37 rounds ago – to find one.
“I’m sure the guys felt the same way when Tiger was winning every tournament that he stepped foot on. It feels like right now that if Scottie shows up with anything above a B game, he’s probably going to be right there,” Harman said.
“He’s been so consistent. He works extremely hard. I can remember at the Players this year he had just won Bay Hill the day before and Monday afternoon he’s out just, I mean, golf ball after golf ball after golf ball, working, working, working. So, he’s very dedicated to it.”
It raises the question of whether someone can elevate his play to Scheffler’s level or whether it’s a matter of waiting for him to come back to the field.
There’s no sign Scheffler will slow down. He’s been so dominant that the question has been raised about whether he could be the first player to win the calendar Grand Slam. If you’re into such things, the odds are +8,000 or 800-to-one. Those are better odds than Rickie Fowler, Keegan Bradley and Nick Taylor, among others, have at Harbour Town this week.
“He just seemed focused on doing Scottie Scheffler things. That’s what he said on 13. He goes, should we go for it? I said, ‘Absolutely. Why don’t we do what we do and what we’re good at?’” – Ted Scott
Before dismissing the idea completely, consider that in the past four major championships, a total of 25 players have beaten Scheffler, and 22 of those did it at the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool nearly a year ago.
As the leaders approached the final nine holes Sunday at Augusta, four players were tied for the lead. Three of them – Max Homa, Ludvig Åberg and Collin Morikawa – made double bogeys that gutted their chances.
Scheffler birdied 13, 14 and 16 to close out the tournament. Facing a decision at the par-5 13th about whether to hit a 4-iron second shot with the ball above his feet and the tournament hanging in the balance, he never wavered.
“He just seemed focused on doing Scottie Scheffler things,” caddie Ted Scott said. “That’s what he said on 13. He goes, should we go for it? I said, ‘Absolutely. Why don’t we do what we do and what we’re good at?’ He’s the best ball-striker in the world.”
Who will push Scheffler?
McIlroy has been fighting his swing this year and, though he says he’s making gains, it’s still a work in progress.
Xander Schauffele has climbed to third in the rankings and he lives on leader boards but, unlike Scheffler, he hasn’t been able to win in nearly two years.
Morikawa is still chasing the confidence that he had three years ago, and it’s too early to know whether his two mistakes on the last 10 holes Sunday dinged the progress he said he’s making.
Four LIV golfers – Cam Smith, Bryson DeChambeau, Tyrrell Hatton and Patrick Reed – finished among the top 12 at the Masters, but they won’t see Scheffler again until the PGA Championship (if Reed maintains his current ranking).
Maybe it’s Åberg who emerges, but he’s still just a year out of college and chasing a player who is riding the ultimate wave of confidence.
The inevitable comparisons to Tiger Woods have begun, though the scale, at least at the moment, is not comparable. Woods won 82 PGA Tour events, including 15 major titles. Scheffler has won nine tour events, of which two are majors.
“Yeah, he’s unbelievable. I can’t say enough about him, really of how highly I regard him, how highly I rate him as a golfer and a person.” – Matt Fitzpatrick
The sense of dominance, however, is familiar.
“I mean, he’s just been annoying everyone for the last three months, hasn’t he?” Matt Fitzpatrick said with a smile.
“Yeah, he’s unbelievable. I can’t say enough about him, really of how highly I regard him, how highly I rate him as a golfer and a person. …
“I definitely watched the last four, five holes of his finish last week, and the shots he hit were unbelievable. No disrespect to a regular PGA Tour event, but the way he was playing kind of just didn’t faze him, and it was as if he was playing with his pals at home. I think that’s the difference of where he’s at compared to a lot of other guys at the minute. He’s basically got the ball on a string. When you can do that, it’s pretty impressive.”