– Scottie Scheffler has won the Open Championship at Royal Portrush this Sunday with a four-shot lead over the runner-up, specifically Harris English. He won the PGA Championship last May with a five-shot margin over Bryson DeChambeau, Harris English, and Davis Riley. The second Masters Tournament in 2024 was taken home with a four-shot difference over Ludvig Aberg, who was second alone. And the 2022 Masters Tournament, his first Major, was conquered with three over Rory McIlroy.
These might seem like anecdotal numbers, a simple list of results to file away, but what they hide is something extraordinary. Such are these records that one must go back to 1909 to find someone doing something similar to Scottie Scheffler. We refer, astute reader, to the fact of having won his first four Majors with three or more shots of advantage. The last to do something like this was J.H. Taylor, an Englishman born in 1871 who won the Open five times. The first time (1894) he did it with a five-shot lead at Royal St George’s, the second (1895) he won by four at St Andrews, the third (1900), again at St Andrews, he won by eight, and the fourth (1909), at Royal Cinque Ports, was by six.
No one else in the last 116 years has done anything similar until Scheffler’s emergence. Not Nicklaus, nor Tiger, nor Palmer, nor Seve… No one else. By the way, J.H. Taylor’s dominance did not end with his fourth victory. In the fifth and last one he won, he prevailed by eight shots. It was in 1913 at Royal Liverpool. This man didn’t just win tournaments; he anesthetised them. We will see what Scheffler is capable of when he wins his fifth Major, because no one in this room doubts right now that Scottie, at least, is going to win five Majors.
– The Career Grand Slam is already on everyone’s lips. Poor Scottie has nothing left. From today, he will have to answer that question. Fortunately, he handles all this with overwhelming naturalness. The World Number One has set his sights on this extraordinary achievement that Rory McIlroy completed this year with the Masters. Scheffler will have the first opportunity to conquer it with next year’s US Open at Shinnecock Hills. You know what it means to win the four different Majors.
However, an important nuance. If he ever achieves it, it will not be a simple Career Grand Slam, but it will be called a Golden Career Grand Slam, as it includes the Olympic gold medal. Only two more players can achieve it right now. One is Justin Rose, although he is three Majors away (Masters, PGA, and Open). The other is Xander Schauffele, who has two left (Masters and US Open). Will any of them achieve it? Who will succeed first? If Schauffele wins the Masters in 2026, it would create the extraordinary circumstance that two players would arrive at the US Open with chances for the Golden Career Grand Slam. It would be something extraordinary. By the way, the 2026 US Open ends on June 21, the day Scheffler turns 30.
– Scheffler also joins a distinguished club that only includes Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. Since the first Masters Tournament was held (1934), Scottie is the third player to win four or more Majors by a margin of three or more shots. Tiger did it seven times, and Nicklaus achieved it on six occasions.
– For those in a hurry to equate Scheffler with Tiger Woods. It’s undeniable that he’s on the way, but he still has a long way to go. Scheffler has four Majors before turning 30. Tiger Woods achieved ten before that age. However, they have reached the fourth Major in the same time span. This fact is astonishing. Between the first and the fourth Major, both took 1,197 days.
– Speaking of Tiger Woods and following in his footsteps. Scheffler is the second player in history to surpass 20 points in the world golf ranking. Only Tiger had achieved this in 2008. His difference with Rory McIlroy is already 8.7 points.
– Since 2020, Scheffler’s cumulative score in the Majors is 111 strokes under par. The second on this list is 46 strokes behind. If your mind hasn’t exploded at this point, you can continue…
– In the last 35 years, only six players have won four or more Majors: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, and, of course, Scottie Scheffler.
– And because not everything has to be about Scottie… DeChambeau and Clark have come within one shot of matching the best record in the last 54 holes of an Open Championship. They have scored 197 strokes since Friday, one short of what Henrik Stenson achieved in 2016. However, Stenson won the Claret Jug, and DeChambeau and Clark did not even finish in the top 3.
– Chris Gotterup finished the Open in third place with a cumulative score of -13 on the par 5s. It is the best record in the British in the last 19 years.
