It's not often golfers get compared to prime Tiger Woods, but that was the conversation surrounding Scottie Scheffler's dominant ball-striking over the past two years.
The world No. 1 gained an average of 2.62 strokes per round from tee to green in 2022-23, which was the best mark since Woods averaged 2.98 in 2006. In 2024, he gained 2.40 per round and won nine times in the span of 16 starts, a stretch highlighted by a second Masters victory, an Olympic gold medal, and a FedEx Cup title.
Scheffler's 2024 season was the most dominant we've seen since Woods had a chokehold on the PGA Tour in the 2000s, but perhaps the comparisons to the greatest golfer of this century were a bit premature.
What made Woods' prime so special was the consistency and longevity. He won 10 times in 18 starts during his historic 2006 season, including two major championships and seven straight PGA Tour victories to close out the year.
He followed that up with eight wins in 2007 and five wins in just seven starts in 2008, the last of which came at the U.S. Open on a broken leg. Even after undergoing season-ending surgery on his knee, he returned in 2009 and won seven more times.
Woods gained at least 2.31 strokes per round from tee to green and led the PGA Tour in that category in 2006, 2007, and 2009. He likely would've done the same in 2008, but he didn't play enough rounds to qualify.
Scottie Scheffler's Tiger Woods honeymoon is already over
That brings us to Scheffler, who's quietly taken a step back with his ball-striking in 2025.
Coming off two historic ball-striking seasons, the American is gaining just 1.68 strokes from tee to green this year. Collin Morikawa (1.99) and Rory McIlroy (1.73) have been better than Scheffler through three and a half months.
Scheffler is still winless this season despite gaining strokes from putting in six of his seven starts. That's where this streak gets interesting.
Scheffler's ball-striking was so far above the rest of the PGA Tour in 2024 that he won nearly every time he had a good week on the greens.
He gained strokes from putting in 11 of his last 16 starts, and he ended up winning eight of those tournaments. If you switched out Scheffler's 2025 ball-striking with his average 2024 performance from tee to green, he would have at least four wins this year.
All this is to illustrate that golf is impossible to perfect. Woods came close in that four-year span from 2006-09, racking up 30 worldwide wins and four major championships while lapping the PGA Tour in ball-striking stats.
Scheffler has won only 12 times during his current run of two-plus years, and his elite tee-to-green play is already starting to regress.
Scheffler turns 29 in June, and he has only two major championships (both Masters titles) in his trophy case. Woods won 10 majors and the career Grand Slam before he turned 29, so it might be time to cool it with the comparisons.