Encores are never easy in golf, and that's particularly true for Scottie Scheffler.
For starters, he can't win another Olympic gold medal until 2028 in Los Angeles, though getting his hands on a 17-inch gold Ryder Cup trophy might suffice. Winning another Masters, or any major, is not out of the question.
Seven wins on the PGA Tour? That's a tall order considering only one player in the last 25 years — Tiger Woods — has won at least seven times in consecutive years. Woods did that twice, in 1999-2000 and 2006-07.
Then again, Scheffler won with such regularity this year that once he bagged his first one at Bay Hill he never went more than two tournaments without winning.
Even more remarkable about Scheffler's unforgettable 2024 was the birth of his first child, getting arrested in Louisville, Kentucky, during the PGA Championship and then puncturing his right hand with broken glass while preparing Christmas dinner.
He can do without a repeat of the last two. Scheffler had minor surgery that knocked him out of the season opener at The Sentry, delaying the start of his new season.
What to expect?
“We just don't know. This is one you can only look at in hindsight,” Padraig Harrington said. “Is he Tiger Woods and is he just going to keep going as if last year was normal? Or is Scottie like everybody else who has a nice run and it's never quite the same after? We can only find that out in hindsight.
“He seems to have a great temperament for last year being his normal,” he said. “But as we know, in golf it never seems to be that way.”
Harrington is among those who can speak from experience.
His monster year came in 2008 when the Irishman won the British Open and the PGA Championship. The following year brought enormous expectations at the Masters, where he was trying to join Woods and Ben Hogan as the only players to win three straight majors. Harrington didn't win in 2009, ending a streak of nine years with at least one victory.
There have been plenty of other big years, but the encore was lacking in the non-Tiger division.
Jordan Spieth won the Masters and U.S. Open and made a serious run at the calendar Grand Slam in 2015, a year that ended with five victories, the FedEx Cup and the No. 1 ranking. His encore started with an eight-shot victory at Kapalua and was going just fine until he lost a five-shot lead on the back nine at the Masters. He won twice the rest of the year.
Rory McIlroy won back-to-back majors in 2014, along with the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. He matched his four victories in 2015, but the year was marked by no majors and an ankle injury from playing soccer that knocked him out of the British Open.
Vijay Singh won nine times in 2004 and had nothing to be ashamed of in 2005 — four wins, no majors and he was back to being second fiddle to Woods.
Singh and Woods had been the only players with at least seven PGA Tour titles in a season over the last 40 years until Scheffler came along. There were plenty of comparisons with Woods, at least statistically. The PGA Tour said Scheffler was No. 1 in 52 “prominent statistics.”
Many of those statistics weren't available in Woods' best year (2000), though the best comparison might be finishing in the top 10 at an 84% clip. Woods was at 85% in 2000.
Scheffler said of the comparisons to Woods, “I think they're a bit silly.”
“I think we’re always looking to compare somebody to Tiger Woods,” Scheffler said. "I saw it a lot growing up. I can remember when Jordan had his season in 2015 and he won a bunch of times and people were comparing him to Tiger Woods. There’s really only one Tiger, that’s just kind of it. I’m trying to get the best out of myself and that’s really all I’m focused on.
“I’m not chasing records or chasing history or anything like that,” he said. “I’m just trying to day in and day out continue to improve a little bit, just go out there and compete, have fun.”
His star power has never been greater after such a banner year. Nick Price had one of those in 1994 with seven worldwide wins, including the last two majors, that stamped him as the clear No. 1 in the world. He won once in 1995 at the Zimbabwe Open.
Price attributed his rough encore to demands on his time and his naturally agreeable disposition. Players were required to return to tournaments they won for a media day. Price had to do a lot of them and says it wore him down.
Asked what he sees from Scheffler, Price let out a deep breath.
“He's managing everything so well,” Price said. "I don't think he's playing too much. He doesn't have a schedule that's wearing him out. There's no stopping him. Not only does he have a great tee-to-green game, but his short game! His chipping and bunker play is phenomenal.
“He's loving playing golf. You can see that. He's got that demeanor that is unflappable,” he said. “It's like he's in a different league to the other guys.”
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On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press
