Scottie Scheffler has credited one round of golf with 15-time major winner Tiger Woods as completely changing his game, as the world No 1 bids to become the first player to successfully defend the FedEx Cup in the season-ending Tour Championship.
Scheffler, who hadn’t won on the PGA Tour prior to 2022, has since secured 23 wins – four of them majors, including two this year – and hailed the role Woods played in his staggering success of the past few years.
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Highlights from the final round of The Open from Royal Portrush as Scottie Scheffler claimed his fourth major title and second of 2025.
Scheffler is the first since Woods to win at least five PGA Tour events in back-to-back years but, with the latter plagued by injuries in the back end of his storied career, the pair shared only one round together as professionals, at the 2020 Masters.
“I admired the amount of intensity that he [Tiger] took to every shot – it was like the last shot he was ever going to hit. That’s something that I try to emulate,” Scheffler said ahead of the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta – live on Sky Sports Golf from 6pm, Thursday.
“I played with him in the 2020 Covid [affected] Masters, and I think he made a 10 on the 12th hole, and then birdied, I think, five of the last six.
“I was like, ‘What’s this guy still playing for?’ He’s won the Masters five times and the best finish he’s going to have is like 20th place at this point.”
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Speaking earlier this year, Paul McGinley said that he thinks Scottie Scheffler is the best competitor he’s seen since Tiger Woods.
Scheffler added: “That’s the biggest change I made from my first couple years on tour to 2022.
“Sunday at the [2020] Masters, Tiger has got no chance of winning the tournament… we showed up on the first hole and I was watching him read his putt; I was like, ‘My gosh, this guy is in it right now.’
“It’s something I thought about for a long time. I felt like a change I needed to make was bringing that same intensity to each round and each shot.
“I don’t hit the ball the furthest – the things that I do on the golf course, other people can do. The reason I’ve had success in these tournaments is the amount of consistency and the intensity that I bring to each round. Not taking shots off, not taking rounds off, not taking tournaments off.
“I only played one round of tournament golf with Tiger Woods, and it completely changed the way I look at how I play tournaments.”
Scheffler please to see start-strokes format scrapped
Scheffler’s change in approach after that inspirational round with Woods had the desired effect, with his relentless success since 2022 seeing him spend the last 118 weeks as world No 1 (as of August 17, 2025) and 153 weeks at the top of the game in total.
Following on from a stunning come-from-behind win at last week’s BMW Championship, having trailed Bob MacIntyre by four shots going into Sunday, Scheffler looks to sign off the season with his sixth success of 2025 and by becoming the first to retain their Tour Championship title.
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Highlights from the final day of the BMW Championship in Owing Mills, Maryland as Scottie Scheffler clinched a stunning come-from-behind win.
Scheffler claimed his first victory at East Lake last year when earning starting strokes on the field in a format which has since scrapped – a move the 29-year-old is happy about.
“Starting strokes, I don’t think was the best way to crown the season-long race,” Scheffler said. “We’re in a much better place now. This, to me, is a much simpler format to end the year.
“In order to qualify for this championship, you have to have a great year. To be one of the 30 best players on tour and make it to this tournament is an extreme accomplishment.
“Then, when it comes to this week, we all start even par, and it’s time to go chase what you want.
“In order to win tournaments, you have to play good golf at the right time, and if you want to win our season-long race, you have to play really good golf at the end of the season.
“That’s why I prefer this format. I think it’s great to have just a really great golf tournament to finish off the year.
“When I imagine the Tour Championship, I imagine it being the most difficult tournament to qualify for in golf, and then the reward for making it here is having a chance to win the FedExCup.
“I think it’s a great reward at the end of the season.”
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Rory McIlroy says he took all 1,100 pin flags from the Masters Shop after winning at Augusta and that he finally feels like he ‘belongs’ after donning the famous green jacket.
New PGA Tour chief executive Brian Rolapp, addressing the media ahead of the Tour Championship, also labelled the switch from the start-strokes format as a “positive” one.
“I think the change in starting strokes will make for a really compelling competition this weekend,” Rolapp said.
“I think the competitive tournaments we’ve had the past few weeks have been great. We essentially had a tournament within a tournament where you’re watching two competitions at once [as players try to qualify for Tour Championship top 30], which I think was extremely compelling.
“But connecting the regular season and the postseason in a competitive model is something that we’ll continue to work on.”
How can I watch the Tour Championship live on Sky Sports?
Sky Sports has extended coverage from all three of the FedExCup Playoffs. Live coverage of the Tour Championship begins from 6pm on Thursday and Friday, 5.30pm on Saturday and 5pm for Sunday’s final round.
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