Scottie Scheffler puts together career accomplishments through a dominant and unique 2024 season

There has never been a golf season like the one Scottie Scheffler achieved in 2024. There have been better seasons, and seasons where golfers have racked up longer lists of accomplishments — more major championships, more PGA Tour events won. But in terms of the unique nature of the entire year, there has never been anything like what Scheffler achieved before.

Let’s start with the wins.

Scheffler has a total of eight wins overall with the sport’s two major bodies, each recognizing seven wins. He has won seven tournaments on the PGA Tour, although Tour Championships are not counted by the Official World Golf Ranking. He also won an Olympic gold medal in Paris, which is recognized as a win by the OWGR but not by the PGA Tour.

No matter how you want to rank Scheffler’s name, no golfer has achieved the same feat in the past 17 years, and only two other players have done it in a single season in the past 41 years.

Seven or more PGA Tour wins (since 1983)

“It’s cool,” Scheffler said of his win total. “Still don’t understand why the Olympics doesn’t count. It’s a little weird to me. I think it’s part of the greed that goes on in your brain. You say, ‘seven,’ I’m like, ‘I won eight.’ I won the Olympics in the middle of the year, and for some reason, it doesn’t count as an official PGA Tour win. It counts like — no offense to Hero — but it counts like the Hero World Challenge in the grand scheme of things.

“But overall, it’s been a great year. I’m proud of the results. It’s something I try not to focus too much on, but at the end of the day, being able to win tournaments is a great feeling, and that’s what we’re all about. And being able to win as many as I have this year is really special.”

Scheffler didn’t praise himself, but the guy who finished T4 at the Tour Championship — Adam Scott, 44 — used the T word when referring to what Scheffler did in 2024.

“It’s been incredible, really starting at Bay Hill, I guess,” Scott said. “I think it’s on par with Tiger’s great years. I think it’s hard for anyone today to separate themselves as much as Scottie did. I don’t think we’ve seen that in a long time. I think it’s harder to do that today.”

One of Scheffler’s most amazing stats of the year: In 20 starts around the world, he finished in the top 10 17 times. Seventeen times! He didn’t miss a single time, and 13 of those 10 times he finished in the top five. He put himself in a position to win a lot, and he made money.

“I think his consistency and his attitude,” said Rory McIlroy, who finished T9 at the Tour Championship, 14 shots behind Scheffler. “I feel like he just brings the same attitude to the course every day no matter where he is in the rankings. He’s been incredible just to see how he handles himself on the golf course. Yeah, we’ll look back in 2024, and it’s obviously one of the best individual years any player has had in a long time.”

Scheffler went into March without a win. He then won eight of his next 15 tournaments, including his second Masters and second Players Championship. His gold medal victory in August is where the season really started to get unique. Scheffler is the first male golfer to win a gold medal and a major in the same year. And that’s just the beginning of his unique winning combinations in 2024.

Scheffler did all this while being the world number one and entering every tournament as a strong contender, often with very low scores, just 5-1 or even lower.

“I don’t even know where to start,” said Justin Thomas, who finished T14 at the Tour Championship. “Obviously, [Scheffler’s] putt was so impressive in terms of literally what part of his game he played. But I just think about how well he played when he was the guy getting beat every week. I don’t think people understand how hard it is when you’re expected to win, when you’re the favorite to win, when everything you do is perceived, good and bad, on the golf course, and it’s hard to get into your own little zone and your own little world and really just shut the noise down.

“It’s a skill just like being able to hit a driver on the fairway or an iron on the fairway. He’s obviously got that down pat.”

Now, let’s talk about money.

A record $29.2 million in regular-season earnings (breaking his own record from a year ago). Another $8 million from the Comcast Business Top 10, a reward for playing on the PGA Tour during the regular season. And then there’s the big money: a $25 million check for winning the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup on Sunday at East Lake. That’s more than $62 million in total — about seven times what Jack Nicklaus earned in his entire career — in just six months.

For a moment, it looked like Scheffler wouldn’t make the final $25 million. He faltered a bit on Sunday at East Lake before recovering his balance with three straight birdies midway through the round to put playing partner Collin Morikawa in a hole and the FedEx Cup out of reach.

“Nothing fazes him,” Morikawa said. “Whether I’m getting closer to getting some advantage or he’s getting an advantage, it doesn’t change the way he walks, the way he plays or the way he makes every shot. That’s something to learn. I think his mental game is a lot stronger than a lot of people realize.”

The statistics are also very special.

Scheffler has had one of the best seasons in recent memory, even from a raw data perspective. He’s gained over 3.0 strokes per round (adjusted for field strength) in the tournaments he’s played, according to Data Golf. While exact numbers after the Tour Championship haven’t been officially released, a sustained year above 3.0 SG (which Scottie has achieved) hasn’t been achieved since at least 2010. Part of that is because he cancelled his bet (he’s a 2024 PGA Tour average putter), but his approach play (over 1.5 strokes per round!) is in another world.

Morikawa is right: Scheffler has never had such control over his mind. That is his secret and his greatest gift. He wants to win the right amount. He is not defined by that, but he throws himself into the competition seriously, whenever he gets the chance. He maintains the tension between wanting to win too little and wanting to win too much perfectly.

“So this week [at the Tour Championship]My goal when I start the week is just to have the right attitude and use what I feel is my greatest strength, which is my mind,” Scheffler said. “That’s what [caddie Ted Scott] reminded me at the beginning of the week, and that’s really what I focused on the most to stay mentally sharp, and it paid off.”

Then there’s everything else.

The buzz around the Masters — a conversation Scheffler could leave for the birth of his child, even though his due date isn’t until weeks away — was followed by his arrest at the PGA Championship — when he was forced to stretch out in his cell before being released only to shoot a 66 en route to a near-midpoint lead at Valhalla.

When you look at last year as a whole, it was a unique season. There’s never really been anything like it, and given all the unique circumstances and events, it’s unlikely to be anything like it again.

“I feel like I’ve lived almost a full life this year,” Scheffler said. “It’s crazy. I don’t know, I think it all goes back to my faith. I think that’s what keeps me grounded, keeps me in the right frame of mind.”

A full year this year is a great way to contextualize Scheffler’s accomplishments, because he accomplished more than most golfers in six months. He essentially had Hideki Matsuyama’s career from March 1 to September 1, and he did it in the most Scottie way imaginable: deflecting praise, talking about the process, vibrating wired headphones and generally maintain a sense of fun that is rare in professional golf.

That was perfectly expressed in an interview after his victory at the Tour Championship, capping off one of the greatest seasons in modern golf history.

What is the simplest way to summarize your year?

Scottie Scheffler: “I mean, it’s pretty fun. Yeah.”