Scottie Scheffler pays attention to the leaderboard, though it usually doesn’t matter.

He watched during the PGA Championship in May and saw his five-shot lead wiped away by Jon Rahm nine holes into the final round. By the time he approached the 18th green, Scheffler had a six-shot cushion and Rahm was out of contention.

It was a similar viewing experience in the final round at the Memorial Tournament, when Ben Griffin closed to within two shots of the lead through 16 holes and Scheffler did just what he needed to, making par on the final two holes to join Tiger Woods as the only repeat winners at Jack Nicklaus’ event.

“Well, you did it again,” the 85 year-old golf legend, Nicklaus, said as he greeted Scheffler on the green.

Nicklaus’ respect and admiration for the best golfer in the world right now was clear in that quick interaction. Scheffler’s old-school approach and his ability to play simple, smart golf is relatable to the all-time great.

The win was Scheffler’s 16th in the last three years. It was his third in his last four events and it came two weeks after his third career major win at the PGA Championship. Adding to his two Masters titles, Scheffler joined rarified air as one of only three golfers ever to have won three or more major championships and 15 or more PGA Tour events before his 29th birthday.

Jack Nicklaus. Tiger Woods. Scottie Scheffler.

Scheffler turns 29 on June 21, the Saturday of next week’s Travelers Championship. That is another tournament he can win for a second year in a row.

Nicklaus sat to Scheffler’s left at the champion’s press conference after the Memorial. He chimed in to elaborate on Scheffler’s humble answers, adding his point of view to questions about killer instinct and closing tournaments down the stretch.

“He’s playing better than I played, and more consistent,” the 18-time major winner said. “He’s just been playing fantastic and I love watching him play. Whether it’s here or on the television or whatever it is, I love to watch. Anytime he’s playing, I want to watch.”

First since Woods

The “First since Woods” graphic seems to always be on standby anytime Scheffler is in contention.

Only 137 PGA Tour starts into his pro career, Scheffler is the latest to be compared to Woods and it’s hard not to. This comparison has staying power, but there is still a long way to go. Woods had already won a remarkable 40 events on Tour and eight majors by the time he turned 29.

Last year, Scheffler became the first since Woods to win seven times in one PGA Tour season. He entered the 2025 U.S. Open ranked No. 1 in the world for 108 consecutive weeks, longer than anyone since Woods’ record 281 weeks from June 2005 through Oct. 2010. No player has had a streak of at least 100 weeks at the top since Woods.

Scheffler does it his own way.

“Scottie carries himself with a lot of joy and determination, and Tiger, it was always a battle,” said Dottie Pepper, a 17-time winner on the LPGA Tour and CBS Sports’ lead on-course reporter who’s followed both up close. “I think they’re very, very different in that regard. Scottie laughs easily, and laughs at silly things easily. You could outwardly see Tiger burn, whereas Scottie’s is below the surface – it’s every bit as hot, but it’s just managed and disguised.”

Scheffler entered the week of the U.S. Open as the clear betting favorite to win his fourth major, the third leg in a career grand slam that feels inevitable. Woods completed his grand slam when he was just 24 years old, four years after his PGA Tour pro debut. By then, betting propositions started to become “Tiger vs. the field.”

Scottie, becoming like Tiger or Jack with first-name recognition, is as close to that territory as anyone has been since Woods.

“The similarity between Tiger in his prime and what you’re seeing with Scheffler is there is an inevitability about it. You expect him to win,” said Nick Pietruszkiewicz, a former ESPN golf editor who is now a freelance golf writer while teaching journalism at Quinnipiac University. “Tiger intimidated the field the moment he showed up on a leaderboard because you heard the roars coming. Scheffler doesn’t have that, but those guys have to be looking up at the board now and saying, ‘Oh no, not him again.’ And having that feeling like, ‘We’re playing for second place.’ That’s what it felt like when Tiger showed up.”

Just like Jack

Scheffler was asked when he first thought it was possible for him to be so dominant.

He and Nicklaus shared a chuckle when he mentioned the “pretty weird feeling” of sitting beside one of the greatest of all time, discussing what he did that day on the golf course.

“I always just dreamed of playing these tournaments. I never think about dominating. I don’t – it’s a waste of time for me to think about that kind of stuff,” Scheffler told reporters at the Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.

That sparked one of several interjections from Nicklaus, who turned his shoulders slightly and had a proud grin as he listened to Scheffler speak.

“Once you start to get a big head and you believe you’re too good, then you will get beat,” Nicklaus said. “I never thought that one time when I played. I always felt like, ‘Hey, I got 144 guys or whatever it might be out there to play. I’ve got to play well to beat ’em.’ Once I got myself into position to win, then you’ve got to be smart about how you finish it. And that’s the way he’s playing. He reminds me so much of the way I like to play. I don’t think I played nearly as well as he played.”

No one has won more major tournaments than Nicklaus did in his career.

His 18 majors are three more than Woods, and seven of them came in his first seven years as a PGA Tour pro, before his 29th birthday. Nicklaus has the third-most PGA Tour wins of all time, nine behind Tiger Woods and Sam Snead‘s record 82.

Yet Scheffler looked like he belonged next to Nicklaus on that dais, like he might one day be in Nicklaus’ chair, admiring the next generational great.

“He’s really an old soul,” Pepper said. “I think that’s what gravitates the legends back to, ‘God, that’s how I played.' ”

Although modern technology has given golfers tools to track swing paths and fine-tune their every movement, Scheffler prefers to keep things simple.

Scheffler’s longtime coach Randy Smith, who he first met when he was eight years old at a country club in Dallas, Texas, refers to the modern TrackMan technology as “the drama box,” Pepper said, and rarely ever uses it while at tournaments.

“You see guys (on the range), every shot they’re checking launch angles, they’re talking spin rates, they’re looking at ball speed. It’s mind numbing,” Pepper said. “And what does Scottie do? He goes out there with his practice grip club and he’s constantly looking at the angle of the face to make sure we’re square at address, working on making sure his hips are firing in sequence, and that’s about it.”

Just like Jack.

Can Scheffler’s pace be sustained?

Scheffler can manage his level of ‘killer-instinct’ intensity, based on where he is or who is chasing him. He plays within himself, waits for others to self-destruct and rarely has to press.

Scheffler didn’t play his best round of golf on Sunday at the Memorial, but he didn’t need to.

“Ben Griffin’s a nice player, Sepp Straka is a nice player, Nick Taylor is a nice player. Those were all the guys that were there basically coming down the stretch,” Nicklaus said. “But he knows that those guys, you know, are not in his league. … He didn’t put himself in a position to lose the golf tournament. He was always in a position to win. And if he had to do something more spectacular, he was in a position to do so. But he didn’t have to.”

Other young stars have been compared to the greats early in their career. Take Jordan Spieth or Rory McIlroy or even Brooks Koepka, who hasn’t won a major since he said his goal was to reach double digits in 2023.

There is something different about Scheffler.

“This is anyone, this is Tiger, this is in the history of golf: I don’t think I’ve ever seen a golfer play as many bogey-free rounds as Scottie. He just doesn’t make mistakes.” Rory McIlroy, the world No. 2, said after Scheffler’s Memorial win.

McIlroy, 36, became the first grand slam winner since Woods when he won at the 2025 Masters. He is one of the greatest in the generation between Woods and Scheffler, yet his five majors in 17 seasons as a PGA Tour pro are well short of Tiger or Jack.

“Ten is a lot, 15 is insane and then the mountaintop is 18,” Pietruszkiewicz said. “Scottie is on a run, and this is more than a heater, this is elite, all-time play. And he still only has three. … He’s (stayed at the top) longer than Rory did it or Koepka did it or Spieth did it when we’ve had these conversations. But three to 15 to 18 is still a long bridge to travel.”

Can Scheffler sustain it?

“Because of the way he goes about things and the people he’s surrounded himself with, the lack of volatility off the golf course, I can’t see any reason why this can’t be sustained if he stays healthy,” Pepper said. “There’s a method to it, there’s a foundation to it. It’s checking the boxes of great fundamentals and we know those never go bad. It doesn’t sound rah rah, it’s not Hollywood, but this is Hollywood stuff. These are crazy numbers over three years, but he’s just getting started, he’s not even 30.”

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