Scheffler is compared to Tiger Woods after a win that rarely seemed in doubt | Scottie Scheffler

No sooner was the Bordeaux jug was raised over the head of Scottie Scheffler than the superlative rush. Each word and each exaltation, there was also the feeling that the Overton window of Golf had changed, its peers daring to express opinions before beyond the pale.

Xander Schauffele may have said it best, because Scheffler was slow on the 18th, as if he was trying to savor every second of an open first championship victory.

“I don’t think we think that the golf world would see someone as dominant as Tiger [Woods] Come so early, and here is Scottie who takes this throne of domination, “said Schauffele, the 2024 champion, having finished seven shots.” You can’t even say that he is in the race. He has just killed him for more than two years now. He is a hard man to beat, and when you see his name in the ranking, it sucks us.

Scheffler is used to it. It was his fourth major title in three years. To make a good measure, he has 17 PGA Tour victories over the same period. The majority of them were like that, a four -story margin of Harris English victory which had rarely looked in doubt.

Rory McILroy was another player who had hoped for a miracle only on Sunday to see the ultimate golf dection had sucking his hopes with three first birdies. After that, the result was not in doubt, Scheffler relaxed to victory 17 under the peer.

“In a historical context, you might say that there may be only two or three players in the history of the game that have been in the race like the one Scottie is on the 24 to 36 months,” said McILroy, who has finished equally for seventh out of 10 sous.

“It’s incredibly impressive. He’s just going to his business. Isn’t doing anything too flamboyant, but he’s the best to perform in the game. All you can do is get you switching off and looking in admiration.”

We are clearly in the imperial phase of Scheffler, where the victories seem predetermined and no superlative seems bizarre. The only question is now to know how many majors he can win. The double figures do not seem bizarre. Which would put him behind Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen.

Tommy Fleetwood certainly thinks he can do it. “If he continues to do as he is, we will all look back and talk about him in the same breath as some of the grown-ups of all time,” he said. “And he played in our generation.”

Not so long ago, such comments would have seemed premature. Now they are an accepted wisdom. Scheffler’s temperament is something special. It seems that little seems to establish it. He plays golf like someone who had his adrenal glands removed. Not that he sounded this way afterwards.

“Each day is a battle, it’s a battle with yourself all the time,” said Scheffler. It was certainly not like that because he decimated a quality field.

Shane Lowry, who won in Portrush in 2019, was another player to talk about comparisons with Woods. But in his opinion, the abundance of Scheffler’s conduct, which often makes him lose his balance while his ball flies 300 meters from the fairway, removed people from the smell.

“I played with him the first two days and honestly, I thought he was going to sliced each hole,” said Lowry. “If Scottie’s feet remained stable and he swamped that of Adam Scott, we are talking about him in the same words as Tiger Woods.

“I think just because it doesn’t seem so perfect, we are not talking about him like that. I think he’s just incredible to watch, and his bad blows are really good. That’s when he is really good.”

If Scheffler had not been in Portrush, it would have been one last day. Sunday morning, there were 11 players less than four shots from Li Haotong in China in second place out of 10 sous. The problem? Scheffler was on 14 sous.

All hopes of a Loch Devon style shock quickly turned off. On the first hole, Li struck his approach for less than six feet. Scheffler’s response? To play it less than three feet and record a birdie.

In truth, it was the last open open day in nearly a generation. Scheffler had won his last nine tournaments after leading after 54 holes. He was not going to lose from here.

In the 4th hole, someone shouted: “What is the point, Scottie?” – A reference to his earlier press conference in the week. A few minutes later, he had made his point with a Birdie and followed him with another on the 5th. Certainly, there was a minor vacant in the following three holes – with two long peer stops followed by a double Bogey in the 8th. But the result has never been in doubt.

As Bryson Dechambeau said: “Scottie is in a league at the moment. I played a lot with him at university, and he was not so good, so he understood a lot since then. It’s really impressive to see and something we can all learn for sure. ”

The bad news for the rest? Scheffler is only 29 years old. He knows how to play golf links now and he clearly wants titles. As his victory speech said, his 14 month old son, Bennett, swung a plastic golf club right next to the 18th green before Claret Jug. He looked natural. Just like his father.