Scottie Scheffler achieves seventh best Season Scoring Average in Golf History, trailing behind Tiger Woods

The golf world, always eager to find new and bigger stars, is now looking at Scottie Scheffler to take on the title of the "next Tiger Woods". Despite the Texan's excellent season, it may be too early to make such a comparison.

Suffice it to say that one of Scottie Scheffler's most outstanding results during the season was his 68.63 scoring average. This figure ranks him seventh all-time, behind six other records, all held by Tiger Woods.

The six best scoring average values in the history of the PGA Tour all belong to Tiger Woods: 67.79 (2000 and 2007), 68.05 (2009), 68.41 (2003), 68.43 (1999) and 68.56 (2002).

Not surprisingly, in that ten-year period (1999-2009), Tiger Woods won more than two thirds of his victories on the PGA Tour (62 of 85). The same is true of his victories on other tours (10 of 12). It was a period when Woods was, simply, unbeatable.

But Tiger Woods' dominance in that period on the PGA Tour went far beyond that. Between 1999 and 2009, Woods played 190 tournaments and was cut in only four. He went six seasons without a cut (seven, if we add 1998).

In other words, Tiger Woods missed the cut at the 1997 Canadian Open. He didn't missed the cut again until seven years and 10 months later, at the 2005 Byron Nelson.

In those ten years, Woods had one nine-win season (2000) and two eight-win ones (1999 and 2006). Only in one of those seasons did he leave with only one win (2004) and in none did he leave with zero. He also won 13 of his 15 majors.

Woods' winning percentage was extremely high as well, at 32.63% (62 victories in 190 tournaments played).

Scottie Scheffler: In the footsteps of Tiger Woods?

There is no doubt that Scottie Scheffler has the makings of a superstar. Tiger Woods' "glorious decade" began three years after he started his professional career, and Scheffler, for now, is following a rather similar path.

Scottie Scheffler started as a pro in 2018. Three years later (2021-22 season) he made his big leap on the PGA Tour, winning four tournaments, including his first major (2022 Masters).

In the recently concluded season, Scheffler won two tournaments including The Players Championship, one of the most important events outside of the majors. In addition, he had a streak of 19 tournaments in the Top 12, which extended between November and July.

The Texan did not miss a single cut and his worst finish was T45 at The CJ Cup in South Carolina, practically at the beginning of the season.

As for his statistics, besides being first in scoring average, Scottie Scheffler dominated almost all the items that measure the efficiency of the players. Scheffler was first in four of the Stroke Gained sections: (Total, Off-The-Tee, Tee-To-Green and Approach-The-Green).

Scheffler was also first in Greens In Regulation with a very high 74% (almost 10 percentage points above the PGA Tour average). In addition, he finished among the top in virtually every statistic that measures long game and approach to the green.

Basically, his only problem was in putting (something that greatly differentiates him from Woods). Scheffler is the 111th most putts needed (overall) on the season (1,616) and the 112th most putts per round (29.09). He required two or more putts 62% of the time.