TenGolf Experiment. Laboratory moment. The 14 eagle or birdie options from less than six meters that Scottie Scheffler left in the last round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open (yes, 14, you read correctly) have invited us to go a little further. How many birdie or eagle options of less than six meters has Scheffler left in what we have of 2024?
We have reviewed hole by hole all the rounds of the World Number One that have been audited by the shot tracker. That is, the four of the Sentry, the four of Phoenix and two and two in the American Express and Pebble Beach, where the PGA Tour only tracked shot by shot on one of the courses (in Palm Springs it was a rotation of three courses and it was repeated on one of them in the final and in Monterey there were two courses, but the tournament was reduced to three days).
Given the scenario of the experiment, the result is that Scheffler has played a total of 216 holes recorded by the shot tracker in what we have of 2024. Well, he has putted for birdie or eagle from less than six meters on 128 occasions, which means almost sixty percent, specifically 59.25. This is the absurdity of putting black on white to a tee to green prodigy like Scottie. It means, in case you are a bit lost, that he putts for birdie or eagle from less than six meters (mythical 20 American feet) in two out of every three holes he plays.
In cold terms, it is already detected that it is something very special, however, some intrepid reader might think: “okay, yes, it’s a lot, this guy is very good, but to really value it, it would be good to be able to compare it with others”. Well thought. That’s what we’ve done. We have compared these Scheffler numbers with Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele, and Wyndham Clark, the top 6 in the world ranking. We would have loved to also include Jon Rahm in the comparison, but as you know, there is no shot tracker in LIV Golf yet. The day will come.
We anticipate the conclusion: Scheffler beats them all. McIlroy, who has played two tournaments in Dubai and the one in Pebble Beach, beware, with a victory and a second place, has putted from six meters or less for birdie or eagle on 91 occasions. He has played 180 holes, so his percentage is 50.55 percent, far from Scottie.
Wyndham Clark, who won at Pebble Beach shooting 59 in the third round, is the closest to Scheffler in this statistic. He has played the same holes as Scottie, a total of 216, and has left 120 options of less than six meters. This translates into 55.55 percent of the holes he has played. Meanwhile, Hovland is at 50.92 percent and Schauffele has 52.52 percent. They are the best in the world and they are far from Scheffler.
There is another piece of data from Scheffler’s rounds that is devastating. Of the twelve rounds he has played so far, he has never left less than nine birdie or eagle options from six meters or less. His consistency is amazing. McIlroy, for example, has two of seven, Hovland one of six, Schauffele, the other most regular, has three of eight and Clark has signed two of six, both in Phoenix. By the way, in the round that Clark shot 59 at Pebble Beach, he left 13 birdie or eagle options of six meters or less, a figure lower than Scheffler’s in the last round of Phoenix… Let’s just say, if he had putted half what, he would have taken the tournament by storm.
These are the things about Scheffler, which when passed under the microscope are even more amazing.
