Oakmont, PA. Often a single match can light a fuse for a powerful explosion to happen. After Rory McIlroy completed the career Grand Slam in winning this year’s Masters, Scottie Scheffler had a ringside seat. However, it was not the outcome he was seeking. As defending champion, it was his duty to place the green jacket around the shoulders of McIlroy.
The fanfare paid to Rory clearly motivated Scheffler to demonstrate the stupendous form he showed in 2025 when the 28-year-old won nine times globally – including the gold medal at the Paris Summer Olympic games.
Since Augusta, Scheffler has played in five events – winning three of his last four starts including the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow last month.
Since May 2023 he has held the top spot in the world golf rankings. To give some perspective — Tiger Woods holds the record for the most weeks at #1 in the Official World Golf Rankings with 683 weeks. He achieved this between 1997 and 2014. The next highest is Greg Norman with 331 weeks. Scottie Scheffler is in the third position with 138. And that streak seems likely to continue in 2025.
Woods paid the ultimate compliment to Scheffler’s golf game when saying the following in 2024 :
“If he putts decent, he wins; if he putts great, he blows away fields; if he has a bad putting week, he still contends.”
Scheffler’s public emergence goes back to when he was selected as one of Steve Stricker’s captain’s pick for the 2021 Ryder Cup matches at Whistling Straits. At that point in his career Scheffler had not won a PGA Tour event but the talents he was already demonstrating were front and center.
In the singles matches Scheffler was paired against the formidable Jon Rahm. The Spaniard had won the US Open earlier that year at Torrey Pines and many viewed the match as one that Rahm would likely win. Scheffler had other plans. The talented Texan birdied five of the first six holes and put away Rahm by a convincing margin of 4+3.
The competitive will of Scheffler was only getting started.
The 2025 season was the most wins on the PGA Tour since Woods matched that total in 2007.
The key to his dominance – bogey avoidance and a much-improved putting stroke.
With his win at the Memorial, Scheffler defended his title – the only other golfer to do so was Woods. He also achieved his 16th PGA Tour title, making him the fourth-fastest to do so after Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus and Woods.
Scheffler’s most recent PGA Tour title was his 16th. Only four others have done so faster — Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus and Woods. That’s lofty company.
The competition fully realizes the tall mountaintop they will need to climb to overtake him. Justin Thomas, the 5th ranked player in the world, admitted as much during his Monday press briefing at Oakmont.
“It’s effortless. Every single aspect of his game is unbelievable,” said Thomas. “I think his mental game is better than anybody out here. To be able to play with those expectations and to stay present as often as he has to me is maybe more impressive than the golf he’s playing. He just doesn’t make any mistakes and almost kind of lets himself be in contention versus forces himself in contention.”
Oakmont has proven itself to be a venue in which the clear superstars in golf have showed their talents by claiming a major title there. Names such as Tommy Armour, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, Larry Nelson, Ángel Cabrera and Dustin Johnson have won either a PGA or US Open championship at the Pittsburgh-area club.
What’s important to fully grasp is that over his 72 starts since his first PGA Tour title at the Waste Management in February 2022 the following results have happened:
62 top 25s (86%)
51 top 10s (71%)
16 wins (22.2%)
Keep in mind, Tiger Woods had a winning percentage of 21.7. Clearly, the difference between them is the sheer number of cumulative starts that Woods played when achieving that winning total. Can Scheffler maintain that type of pace?
The US Open is thought to be the toughest major of the four to win. And Oakmont is no stranger to such championships. Scheffler’s drive to regain the clear dominance he showed throughout 2024 is now firmly back in place.
The McIlroy Masters win was a clear wake up call for Scheffler. The inner competitiveness within Scheffler is the driving ingredient and a US Open win would only add to the considerable separation that exists between him and everyone else.
He now possesses a total golf game in which he need not be at full operating level to achieve success. The Woods quote speaks to that clearly.
It may take a golfer with kryptonite to keep Superman Scheffler from soaring again.
But dominant players have not all succeeded at Oakmont. Arnold Palmer failed in 1962 against Nicklaus in the 90-hole tussle at the US Open. Ditto Tom Watson in 1978 (PGA) and 1983 (US Open) and Woods himself in 2007 all speak to that reality.
A Scheffler triumph at one of golf’s most revered and feared courses will be the ultimate validator for a golfer quickly leaving the boundaries of earth behind him.
