Even with four Majors, three legs of the Grand Slam and 20 victories around the world, it’s a little early to be making Scottie Scheffler comparisons. And yes, it’s a bit silly.AdvertisementBut one moment is worth noting. His four-shot victory at the British Open complete, Scheffler saw 15-month-old son Bennett coming toward him on the 18th green at Royal Portrush. The toddler face-planted going up the slope. Scheffler eventually scooped him into his left arm, his right hand holding the claret jug.This was pure joy. It was reminiscent of Canterbury in the 1973 PGA Championship. Jack Nicklaus, who that week broke the record for most Major titles, was coming off the 18th green after the second round when 4-year-old son Gary ran out to meet him. The Golden Bear carried off his cub. “My favorite photo in golf,” Nicklaus said years later in a post that he ended by saying, “Family first, golf second.” Sound familiar?“He plays a lot like I did,” Nicklaus said in late May at the Memorial, and perhaps that’s where any similarities should start.Comparisons with Tiger Woods are natural because they are separated by a generation, and no one has been this dominant for such a long stretch since Woods. Scheffler has stayed at No. 1 for the last two years and two months.But their games, their styles, their paths are not all that similar.Everyone saw Woods coming when he was on “The Mike Douglas Show” at age 2, when he won the Junior Worlds six times and both the US Junior and the US Amateur three straight times. He made a hole-in-one in his pro debut. He won his first PGA Tour event in his fifth start.Scheffler spent his first year as a pro on the Korn Ferry Tour. “I played with him a lot in college, and he was not that good,” Bryson DeChambeau said with a laugh. He now refers to Scheffler as being “in a league of his own.”Woods was all about power and putting. Scheffler is fairways and greens.Woods was overwhelming, winning the Masters by 12 shots, the US Open by 15 and the British Open at St. Andrews by eight for the career Grand Slam at age 24.Scheffler is relentless. He can take the drama out of a Major without notice. He’s the first player to win each of his first four Majors by at least three shots since JH Taylor more than a century ago, when the British Open was the only Major and had fields smaller than a signature event.Nicklaus picked up on this at the Memorial without ever talking to Scheffler about it.Before the tournament, Nicklaus spoke about his approach to golf — more emphasis on the tee shot (left-to-right shape, like Scheffler) and the approach, less dependence on putting for a good score. And when he got the lead, Nicklaus did what was required. Scheffler won that week by four shots. “Once I got myself into position to win, then you’ve got to be smart about how you finish it,” Nicklaus said. “And that’s the way he’s playing.”
Scheffler comparisons closer to Nicklaus than Woods
