There's no denying that Scottie Scheffler's 2024 season was absolutely incredible, what with the nine wins and all, which included a second straight Players Championship triumph, a second Masters victory, an Olympic gold medal, and the FedEx Cup title.
Where Scheffler's 2024 ranks among the all-time great campaigns is obviously debatable, but two-time Masters champion and current LIV Golf member Bubba Watson believes it's the greatest in golf history, even going so far as to specifically say it was superior to Tiger Woods' historic 2000 season.
"I know Tiger did some stuff in 2000," Watson recently told Golf.com, "but Scottie's year was the best we've ever seen. With all the talent around the world now playing, that was it."
Look, I'm aware everyone is entitled to their own opinion. And one coming from a guy with two green jackets and 10 additional PGA Tour wins carries more weight than most. But Bubba is completely delusional if he genuinely thinks Scheffler's season was better than Tiger's.
And that last sentence actually kills his argument. Yes, some of the best players on the planet are not on the PGA Tour these days. They're with Watson in LIV Golf.
So, wouldn't that make things easier on Scheffler in non-majors? Think about it. With Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, Joaquin Niemann, Tyrrell Hatton, and others not teeing it up on the PGA Tour, doesn't Scottie play against weaker fields?
But even beyond that, Tiger's 2000, which also included nine wins, was just better. Period.
Tiger Woods' 2000 vs. Scottie Scheffler's 2024
Here's a side-by-side look at the nine wins from both Woods and Scheffler during their respective seasons.
Tiger Woods 2000 | Scottie Scheffler 2024 |
|---|---|
Mercedes Championships | Arnold Palmer Invitational |
AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am | The Players Championship |
Bay Hill Invitational | The Masters |
Memorial Tournament | RBC Heritage |
U.S. Open | Memorial Tournament |
The Open Championship | Travelers Championship |
PGA Championship | Men's Olympic Golf Competition |
WGC-NEC Invitational | Tour Championship |
Bell Canadian Open | Hero World Challenge |
For starters, the fact that Tiger Woods won three consecutive majors in 2000 effectively ends the discussion. Throw in that he took the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach by a ridiculous 15 shots and then won The Open Championship at St. Andrews by eight is just the cherry on top.
Furthermore, in his other 11 official starts that year, Woods recorded four runner-up finishes and only finished outside the top 10 three times.
Similarly, though, Scheffler also only finished outside the top 10 three times in 19 official PGA Tour starts in 2024 and carded two second-place finishes. But again, while he won his second green jacket, Scheffler winning just the one major makes it impossible to say his season was better.
And if one wanted to get truly technical here, Scheffler didn't actually win the Tour Championship. Take away the staggered-stroke format for the FedEx Cup finale, and Scottie would have finished third.
Plus, his ninth win of the season was at the Hero World Challenge, which only has 20 players in the field. So, there's that.
And if one wanted to continue to get technical, Tiger actually won for a 10th time in 2000 at the Johnnie Walker Classic in Taipei. But as that event was officially part of the European Tour's 2001 season, nobody really counts it.
None of this is to say that Scheffler's 2024 wasn't great. Because it was. To steal a phrase that was once used to describe one of Woods' most phenomenal putts, it was genuinely "better than most."
But better than Tiger's 2000? Sorry, Bubba. Not even close.