Underrated Mental Mastery: The Winning Trait Scheffler and Woods Share
Scottie Scheffler's remarkable 2024 season draws compelling parallels to Tiger Woods, particularly after joining Woods and Vijay Singh as the only players in the modern era to win nine tournaments in a single season.
At the Hero World Challenge, Scheffler demonstrated his complete dominance by leading in 11 statistical categories, including:
- Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green (+3.23)
- Strokes Gained: Approach (+1.69)
- 3 Putt Avoidance (0)
- Scoring Average (67.8)
His 2024 achievements include:
- Second Masters victory
- Successful Players Championship defense
- Five signature event wins
- Tour Championship victory
- FedEx Cup title
- Olympic gold medal in Paris
- First-time father
Justin Thomas highlighted Scheffler's most underrated quality: his ability to perform under immense expectations. "It's very, very hard to manage expectations," Thomas noted. "It's truly just as much of a talent as being able to control your distance with your wedges or flight a driver."
Scheffler's season-long statistics further emphasize his excellence:
- Tour leader in SG: Tee to Green (+2.401)
- Tour leader in SG: Approach the Green (1.277)
- Tour leader in Scoring Average (68.645)
- Tour leader in Birdie Average (4.88)
Despite making golf look effortless, Scheffler maintains his humble perspective, stating that "golf very rarely feels easy." His ability to consistently deliver while managing high expectations has established him as one of golf's most complete players, earning him $63 million in tournament winnings for the year.