They don’t even know how good they had it. The rest of golf didn’t fully understand how much worse it could have been. Maybe it’s about to.
Four years into the Scottie Scheffler Era — the four major championships, the previous 19 PGA Tour wins — and we still haven’t seen the actual best version of Scheffler. Sunday’s four-stroke win at the American Express in his first start of the year might signal it’s finally happening.
No, really. Stay with me.
Every season of this reign has come with an impediment. There were the putting woes, which cost a golfer striking the ball at levels not seen since Tiger Woods to “only” win twice. Even his nine-win 2024 came as mostly a below-average putter. Then there was the Christmas ravioli incident that served as a five-month head start for the rest of golf in 2025. He still won two majors and six total tournaments.
But there’s something deeper here.
Scheffler avoided excuses through 2025, but in late April, right as his form returned, he shed some light on what was really lost with the hand injury. It wasn’t just about the time it took to get into form. He said: “Not only because I started a month late, but I was set back four weeks by injury and not being able to do the stuff I would normally do.”
What he means is the offseason conditioning where he’s usually taking the next step and honing in on his natural athleticism. “I have things I try to improve on, accomplish what I wanted to accomplish, feel ready going into the season. All of a sudden, I’ve got to take a month off. A lot of that time, it feels like you’re starting over because you lose strength, lose mobility.”
I heard that and didn’t make much of it. Filed it away for later.
For the solo lead 👀
Here comes Scottie Scheffler.
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Then Scheffler got into form, ran away with the Byron Nelson in early May, and that was it — in his next 14 starts, he won seven times and never finished worse than T8. So I thought, “OK, he just needed to get back into rhythm.”
But when he spoke at his (fourth consecutive) PGA Tour Player of the Year press conference last month, we learned more.
He said his biggest priority this offseason was building up his strength. Not swing speed strength. Overall body strength. “Where it was in 2024,” Scheffler said.
“And then making sure my body feels good for me to be able to perform throughout the course of the season and not have to kind of battle in certain events maybe if my body’s not feeling 100 percent.”
Throughout the conversation, Scheffler frequently discussed regaining his body to its 2024 state, focusing on reducing inflammation and maintaining his energy levels. The more he talks, the more you realize Scheffler did not feel like Scheffler last year.
“That’s something that would be basically unnoticeable to anybody but myself just based upon how I feel,” he said.
But even that version of Scheffler dominated golf. His offseason project after 2023 — and throughout all of 2024 — was improving his putting with celebrated instructor Phil Kenyon. It worked. He went from a net negative on the greens to the No. 5 putter in the world in strokes gained. The only golfers ahead of Scheffler can’t hold a candle to his ball striking.
So here’s the point: Scottie Scheffler has never gone into a season as a complete player with an elite putting game with a full offseason to improve and build. He has never been fully healthy and unencumbered by his shortcomings.
So guess what happened? In his first tournament, he beat a decent American Express field by four shots and dominated so much from tee to green Sunday that he gained 4.97 strokes on the field. Next best was in the 3s.
Scottie Scheffler beat the field by four strokes at the American Express. (Orlando Ramirez / Getty Images)
What if this is just life on tour now? Because what’s left to point to?
In a sport where winning once a year is an achievement, Scheffler has won 50 percent of the tournaments he’s entered since May 2025. He’s already a 3-to-1 betting favorite in this season’s majors, implying a 25 percent probability. But what if that isn’t quite enough? Scheffler usually plays in 21 tournaments a year. Could he win 10 times, something even Tiger couldn’t do? Is the career Grand Slam a lock? Could he win two majors again? Or three? Or… OK, let’s stop ourselves here.
These are all hyperbolic claims, but that’s the point. We are watching a golfer achieve on a level people didn’t think could be reached in a parity-filled post-Tiger era. And yet I sincerely believe we haven’t seen Scheffler play his best. The lack of “yeah but” counters are becoming terrifying.
You cannot worry about his putting, because he’s among the best in the world. You cannot ask if he can win overseas, because he just won the Open Championship going away. And you cannot wonder about his versatility, because he’s dominated every type of venue.
It’s like his lifelong coach, Randy Smith, once said — Scheffler is really only competing against the best versions of himself. That means a pursuit of perfection.
“I think I have the understanding that I’m never going to get there. This is a game that can’t be perfected. But I think that’s what always keeps you coming back,” Scheffler said. “Because you can always get a little bit better, you can always get a little bit sharper. And there’s nothing better than hitting the ball exactly the way you want to. That’s one of the best feelings ever.
“I think as golfers we’re all kind of chasing that.”
The rest of golf wishes he’d stop.