We Can Stop Calling Scottie Scheffler Boring

The past few years, Scottie Scheffler has been on a dominating run of golf. In my opinion, it’s the best four-year consistently great stretch of golf we’ve seen since Tiger.

Here is what Scheffler has accomplished in just the past four seasons which encompasses 82 starts on the PGA Tour:

45 top-five finishes (55 percent of his starts) 18 victories Three major wins Two Players Championship wins Olympic gold medal Only four missed cuts 141 weeks at No. 1 in the world

This is stunningly good golf.

This is historically good golf.

There have been only three players in the post-World War II era to win three majors and 15 Tour events before the age of 29.

Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Scottie Scheffler.

The two greatest golfers to live—and Scheffler.

When Scheffler plays well, like he did this week, he wins by five shots. When he plays average, by his standards, he is in the top 10 on the leaderboard. And when he plays poorly, his floor on the vast majority of weeks is around a tie for 25th.

Compare that to other top players of this generation. Yes, when Rory McIlroy plays at the height of his powers, he can crush the competition. Yes, when Brooks Koepka was winning majors—before this recent downturn—he could squeeze the life out of golf tournaments.

But that is (or was) with their best golf.

Scheffler’s C+ game, which he had at the Masters, gets him in contention. Rory’s C+ game has him barely making the cut and refusing to do media four days straight (more on that tomorrow).

The point is that Scheffler is doing something incredible and this is no longer a narrow window where he just happened to get hot.

He has three major victories with ample opportunity to do more damage. He can absolutely pass McIlroy and Koepka (five wins). He might even do so with relative ease.

This is my thesis behind a larger point: Scottie Scheffler is no longer boring because he is officially chasing history.

And the chase for true greatness is never boring

There has been a criticism of Scheffler over the past few years that he is not entertaining.

To a certain degree, it’s a valid point. Scheffler is a low-key guy. He seems to be a humble family man and someone of deep faith. His biggest vice might be eating a little too much Chipotle (gasp).

He is not going to make outlandish statements or flip-flop on his opinion a million times like a McIlroy would do. He is not all that high on the “guy you would want to grab a beer with” list.

And that straightforward personality shows inside the ropes. Scheffler doesn’t have one particular skill that shines. Every element of his game is consistently good. If you don’t believe me, check out his Strokes Gained stats this season.

Tee-to-green: 1st Off-the-tee: 2nd Approach the green: 1st Putting: 15th

That is ridiculous. It’s hard to beat a guy like that over 72 holes.

Some players like Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth endear fans with their wildness off tee, followed by resourceful recovery shots. Some players like McIlroy endear fans with their majestic ball striking.

But nearly all fans are attracted to personalities that stand out among the masses. Pro golfers tend to be vanilla so the fans tend to gravitate to the ones who are different personality-wise.

If you’re a great player and different? You can be a hero.

Scheffler has been thought of as someone who can boast consistently amazing play on the course but not much else beyond that so the fan passion is lacking. He walks and talks like a lot of professional golfers. He is not wild off the tee or overpowering courses with his length. There is little in the way of bravado or electric celebrations.

Instead, Scheffler is just really, really good in all aspects of the game.

I thought this comparison to Tim Duncan was fitting:

I get the idea but Scheffler can’t be called boring now

There are two points I want to make here.

The first is that Scheffler becomes more interesting with every win. As he starts to challenge—and potentially surpass—the career of McIlroy, he could find his way into Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer and Ben Hogan territory.

It’s possible. He has so many years ahead of him. Just the possibility makes his career arc exciting.

Roger Federer was exciting because greatness is exciting, not because he was erratic or entertaining off the court.

Scheffler is like that, too.

If you play this game and understand its immense difficulty, you have to deeply respect true greatness. And true greatness creates compelling storylines because we will want to know just how great Scheffler can be.

We will want to know whether he can be knocked off his perch as the No. 1 player in the world. We will want to know if someone can beat him in a major if he’s playing like he did at the PGA Championship. We will want to know if the career Grand Slam is in his future (he’s halfway there already).

My second and final point is that our definition of “boring” is demented (a societal issue not specific to golf).

Scheffler is just a normal guy who loves golf. We saw that in this awesome video he did with Grant Horvat earlier this month.

If this guy is “boring”, we should all want to be boring.

Why does someone with admirable values and a strong work ethic get labeled as “not interesting” just because they aren’t flawed in an entertaining way?

I’m entertained by Scheffler. I’m entertained by his normalcy, by the fact he can play golf at historically great levels without sacrificing other elements of his life.

And, now, we should all be captivated by his chase for history.

Is that boring? It can’t be.

It’s the opposite of boring now.

Top Photo Caption: Scottie Scheffler celebrates after winning the PGA Championship. (GETTY IMAGES/Maddie Meyer)

The post We Can Stop Calling Scottie Scheffler Boring appeared first on MyGolfSpy.