Telfer's Thoughts 21.7.25

Watching Scottie Scheffler stroll to a comfortable victory on the final day of the Open Championship came really as no surprise.

The tall, languid American held a 3-shot lead after 54 holes, but nonetheless there was some chatter that Rory McIlroy, after an exquisite third round 5 under par 66, might nip in and grab the Claret Jug ahead of Scheffler, egged on by a massive home crowd. Alas, the Irishman couldn’t repeat his third-round heroics, playing out a fairly patchy 2 under 69 to finish 7 shots adrift of Scheffler in a tie for 7th place.

It can be argued, and the world rankings underline this as well, that Rory McIlroy is the world’s Number 2 golfer behind Scheffler. The difference between the two is consistency. Scheffler pitches up every week and reels off sub par rounds, regardless of the courses, links or parklands, the length and speed of the greens or the height and depth of the rough. Rory, when he’s on fire can match Scheffler, but the Irishman’s problem is he can’t seem to do it for four rounds often enough. When Scheffler’s game is off, which is very rarely, he’ll still patch together a 73 or 74. Rory, on the other hand, when he’s having problems with his driver in particular will clock up 77’s or 78’s.

Meanwhile, others, including some of Scheffler’s peers, are starting to talk about him in the same breath as Tiger Woods.

Shane Lowry, who played with Scheffler, said he honestly thought he was going to birdie every hole. “It was incredible to watch. If his feet stayed stable and his swing looked like Adam Scott’s we’d be talking about him in the same words as Tiger Woods”. Xander Schauffele, last year’s Open winner, echoing Lowry’s comments, said, “I didn’t think the golfing world would see someone as dominant as Tiger come through so soon. You can’t even say Scottie is on some sort of run, he’s been killing it for over two years now. When you see his name up on the leaderboard it sucks for us.”

Yes, valid comparisons up to a point. When these thoughts and others were put to Scheffler, he said bluntly, “Comparing me to Tiger is just silly stuff. He’s won 15 Majors, I’ve won 4”. So guys, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Remember also Tiger has won 82 tournaments worldwide, Scheffler 20 to date. Of most interest to me is how many more Majors Scheffler might win. He’s just 29, so probably has at least another 10 years of top golf ahead of him if he so wishes. Curiously, if he were to win just 1 Major per year for the next decade, that would take his tally to 15, Tiger’s magic number. The chances of Tiger ever adding to that tally look slim.

The two Kiwis in the Open field failed narrowly to advance beyond the first two rounds. Both Ryan Fox and Daniel Hillier missed the cut by 1 shot. It must have been an especially painful moment for Daniel. With 3 holes left in his second round, he was looking pretty. His score was at even par and at that point the cut looked as if it would probably be at one over (plus 1). Unfortunately for Daniel, he then proceeded to bogey two of his last 3 holes to finish at 2 over. Meanwhile the cut came down to minus 1 so he and Foxy, who had two reasonably efficient rounds, both missed out by the narrowest of margins… 1 shot.

The final word this week to Jordan Spieth on Scottie Scheffler:

“He doesn’t care to be a super star. He’s not transcending the game like Tiger did. He just wants to get away from the game and separate himself from it. He feels it is too much. He differs in that respect more than any other superstar that you’ve seen in the modern era. I don’t think there’s