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ENRIQUE MELLADO
Updated
The fact that Scottie Scheffler has won the Jack Nicklaus Award for Best Player of the Year in the PGA Tour It doesn’t surprise anyone. Perhaps some doubt arose at the moment when Xander Schauffele wins the British Open -his second victory in a major in 2024-, but the current world number one quickly cleared them by hanging the gold at the Olympic Games and including in his record the Fedex Cup.
Scottie has won the street election, with the 91% of the votes; second was Schauffele and third was McIlroy. It is about the the only player along with Tiger Woods to have lifted the Nicklaus Trophy three times in a row. Of course, last year it left Jon Rahm as a favorite to obtain this award, but his signing for LIV Golf penalized him.
Scheffler, from 28 yearscan boast of an impeccable season, watered with seven victories: Arnold Palmer, The Players, Masters, RBC Heritage, Memorial, Travelers and Olympic Games. Although he won the Fedex Cup, the Tour Championship does not count as a victory, because without taking into account the handicap that applies in this tournament, the winner was Morikawa. Of course, beyond his successes, there is one fact that fans will not forget: when he was arrested just before the start of the PGA Championship.
Today Scottie made a public appearance – by video call – at the opening of a PGA Tour store and it was inevitable that the question arose. comparison with Tiger Woods. The one from New Jersey does not even consider that there can be a debate in this sense: “I think we always seek to compare someone with Tiger. I saw it a lot when I was a child… In reality, there is only one Tiger, and that’s it.”. Scheffler also defined the moment of the season in which he reached his peak: “I would say that the nine holes that have caught my attention the most are the last nine of the Olympic Games.”
The Tiger Y2K Effect
Although the number one in the world is not a friend of comparisons, His 2024 campaign deserves a place in golf historythanks to the aforementioned seven victories -1 major- and 16 ‘top 10’ in 19 tournaments. Is his season on par with Tiger’s 2000? Although what Scheffler has done is truly incredible, it is worth remembering that the Tiger achieved nine victories, including three majors; two of them, with historical margins of 15 and 8 shots ahead. He was also ‘top 5’ in 17 of 20 tournaments. The Californian took golf that year to its highest level of popularity in its entire history.
To name other memorable seasons, In 1943 Byron Nelson scored 16 tournaments (1 major, the only one that was organized that year due to WWII) of the 30 in which he participated. Another of the campaigns often remembered is that of 1930 because it was in which Bobby Jones won all four majorsthe only time this has been achieved, although two of them were the US Amateur and the British Amateur, but they won the finals by 8 and 7 and 7 and 6 respectively. Let us also quote Ben Hogan, who in 1953 won the Masters by five shots, the US Open by six and the British Open by four. Hogan couldn’t be in the PGA Championship because it ends a day before the British began, and also on another continent.
