Tiger Woods understands what it takes to be the world’s premier golfer – and he’s thoroughly impressed by Scottie Scheffler’s current reign.
Scheffler has held the World No. 1 ranking since May 2023, spanning 132 weeks in a period of supremacy that has invited comparisons to Tiger Woods’ era of unparalleled success.
Woods, who recently offered a telling response when questioned about his comeback prospects, once maintained the top position for 281 straight weeks from 1999 to 2004.
When reporters suggested that Scheffler’s performance has been “almost Tiger-like” Woods embraced the opportunity to discuss what makes the current golf king so remarkable.
“Well, there’s nothing you can’t not like about Scottie,” Woods remarked. “He’s one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. What he’s doing on the golf course is just incredible, the consistency day in and day out, the strategy that he – how he attacks the golf course.”
“It starts from you can see him analyze it from the green back where the flag is, where he wants to miss a tee shot, what club to hit, where the wind is, what side of the tee box he’s to start off on.
“It’s truly amazing at how thoughtful he is and strategic he is throughout the entire round. And on top of that, he doesn’t have lapses in a round like most players do.
“He’s there present for all 18 holes and all shots played and that’s hard to do. To do that day in and day out with the grueling schedule that the Tour has and the players are playing now in more of a condensed season, and the big events that he’s playing in.
“I mean, he won six times and they’re not small events. He’s beating the best fields. So that’s something that I certainly can appreciate and I think that I hope everyone else appreciates it as well because you just don’t see this happen very often.”
When questioned about which aspect of Scheffler’s performance he finds most captivating to observe, he responded: “Of Scottie’s game? Yeah, I truly love watching him hit irons, the shaped shots that he hits, the trajectory, the window changes that he has, the distance control, the miss in the proper spot, the proper spin in certain pin locations.
“These are all subtle things that mean a lot over the course of 72 holes. That to me is impressive. If you don’t have trajectory control, you can’t have distance control. To see him move it up and down in different windows, use wind, fight wind and control spin is fun to watch.”
Meanwhile, Scheffler has repeatedly maintained that comparisons to Woods are premature. Following his Open victory, he stated: “I still think they’re a bit silly. Tiger won, what, 15 majors? This is my fourth. I just got one-fourth of the way there. I think Tiger stands alone in the game of golf.”
