Scottie Scheffler Is Still Hunting Tiger's Prime
Scheffler leads the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained at a rate we haven’t seen since peak Tiger Woods — and his 2025 major record could nearly be as dominant.
As has often been the case at major tournaments since he ascended to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings three years ago, Scottie Scheffler is the favorite to win this weekend’s British Open at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland. On Wednesday, Polymarket’s trading board gave Scheffler an implied 14 percent chance to win the title, a bit clear of Northern Irish native Rory McIlroy (11 percent) and well ahead of the rest of the field:
Out of all four majors, the British Open has been the one where Scheffler is traditionally weakest, with no wins, a pair of Top 10s — zero Top 5s — and an average finish of 14.8 when he makes the cut. A win here this week would place him one U.S. Open victory away from the fabled Career Grand Slam, while simultaneously checking off what might be the harder of the two remaining boxes to fill — even if Scheffler himself has started to question what boxes like that really mean.
But beyond that, a win at Portrush — or even another high finish — would take Scheffler’s season from great to potentially historic. In both the numbers and the company he’d join, it would mark 2025 as something more than just another strong campaign for the world’s top golfer: By Sunday evening, we might be talking about the most complete and dominant run golf has seen since Tiger Woods’ prime.
